


Unraveling Threads

by PhantomDreamshade



Series: A Glimpse of Sun [2]
Category: Undertale (Video Game)
Genre: Chara's a villain but not for arbitrary reasons, F/F, Fluff and Angst, Frisk isn't innocent, Gender-Neutral Chara, Gender-Neutral Frisk
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2017-12-27
Updated: 2018-03-26
Packaged: 2019-02-22 08:33:39
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 20
Words: 34,299
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/13163208
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/PhantomDreamshade/pseuds/PhantomDreamshade
Summary: Between Flowey and Frisk, the Underground has splintered into hundreds of different timelines - and Chara, in possession of Frisk's soul, is destroying them one by one. What can anyone do against such determination?Perhaps the answer lies in aid beyond the circle of monsters Frisk had come to care for before their soul was stolen.





	1. Hourglass

**Author's Note:**

> This is the second part of a series. If you haven't read Selfish Sacrifices, I highly recommend you do so, or this won't make a lot of sense.

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Sans has a plan to deal with Chara, and he needs Alphys' help to do it.

Sans left a note on Frisk’s bed in case Toriel woke up and took the kid on a shortcut to the True Lab. He showed them the temporal analyzer, currently reevaluating and cataloguing each timeline in turn.

“you think chara’s jumping timelines?” Sans asked them.

“I don’t really know how all of this works,” they said, gesturing to the machine. “But with their LV combined with my soul, that must be what it is. It also explains  _ that _ ,” they said, pointing to his chest. Sans put his hand to his sternum, even the memory of what Flowey had done to him making him wince.

“How many timelines have they destroyed?” Frisk asked. They tried to make sense of the data themself, but it was all just scientific gibberish to them. 

“a hundred and four,” Sans answered, doing the math in his head mentally. The machine made a ping and the specific set of timelines he was watching changed.

Temporal Division 4-Z

Status: Error!-Type: Terminated

Anomaly Total: 6

Temporal Division 5-A

Status: Error!-Type: Terminated

Anomaly Total: 4

Temporal Division 5-B

Status: In Flux

Anomaly Total: 3

“uh... make that one-oh-five,” he corrected. “here, look. everything before this one is completely gone, just like last timeline,” he said, pointing to 5-B, “and that one’s being manipulated right now. so that must be where the brat is.”

Frisk nodded in understanding, then looked at Sans. “What are we going to do?”

Sans shook his head. “i dunno, kid. but if they keep wrecking timelines like this, it won’t be too long until they end up here.”

“I don’t know how to move between timelines, though. I just made new ones, I guess. And I don’t think I have enough determination to override theirs, after all the monsters they must have killed by now. Especially not without my soul.”

Cogs started to turn within Sans’ skull. “soul,” he muttered. Frisk looked at him, curious. “the human souls. maybe we can use those to stop them once they get here.”

Frisk nodded. “Maybe. Flowey stole control of the timeline from me when he got the human souls,” they said.

“flowey... got the human souls?” Sans asked. That meant Frisk had essentially beaten a god without their determination.

“That’s a story for another time,” they said, a faraway look in their eyes. “Using the souls is a good backup plan, but I don’t think it’s a good idea to just sit around and wait for them. There must be something preemptive we can do.”

“not unless you know someone else that can jump timelines,” Sans shrugged, looking back to the machine. The screen was covered by static for a brief moment, and he almost jumped. He could have sworn he saw… something.

“Sans?” Frisk asked, looking at him.

“hmm? oh, it’s nothin’, pal. let’s get you back to your bed before tori freaks out.”

“We haven’t come up with an idea yet,” they said.

“i think i might have one, but i gotta talk to alphys. nothin’ you can help with right now, at any rate. unless you wanna brush up on your quantum physics?”

Frisk raised an eyebrow. “I’ll leave that to you.” Sans chuckled and teleported back to Toriel’s house with the human in tow.

* * *

Alphys flipped a switch, turning her easy-to-draw-box into a comfortable bed. She was exhausted, not only from the day’s events but also from her mini Mew Mew Kissy Cutie marathon. She really did have some terrible sleeping habits, but it was just something that was hard to break.

Her drowsiness immediately went away, however, when the unfolding bed revealed a short, smiling skeleton standing on the opposite side. She nearly jumped out of her scales, screaming and falling backwards before she recognized who it was.

“S-Sans! Why-- I TOLD YOU NOT TO DO THAT! That’s the third time this week, I swear next time I’m going to throw you off the railing and…” She was breathing heavily, trying to recapture the air that had been driven from her lungs.

Sans just chuckled and rubbed the back of his skull in embarrassment. “sorry, al. figured you’d still be up, and i had to talk to you.”

Alphys sighed and adjusted her glasses as she stood up. “This b-better be important.”

“it is,” he assured her, handing her a stack of papers from the temporal analyzer. She looked over the printouts, her expression quickly morphing into one of fear.

“Th-This can’t be right,” she said.

“i wish,” Sans answered. “but it looks like chara’s been busy with frisk’s soul while we were dealing with the weed.”

“W-Wait… soul? What are you talking about?”

“oh, right. that’s the deal the kid made. they just didn’t tell the rest of you in case the flower overheard. chara took their determination along with their soul, so that meant flowey actually had control of the timeline and didn’t know it. ‘til we pumped the kid full of determination again, that is.”

“B-But… that’s… I-I don’t…” Alphys struggled to find a response. “I-I’m guessing that’s a whole o-other story, s-so I won’t ask. B-But… what do you expect me to do about  _ this _ ?” she asked, gesturing to the papers. “I-If this is correct, then there’s nothing we can do b-but sit and wait.”

“actually, i was hoping you could fix up the old quantum-dimensional phaser for me while i run a few algorithms,” Sans said. He looked away.

It took a few seconds for words to return to Alphys’ brain. “You want me to do what?”

“look, i know how it sounds, but--” 

“No. N-No, absolutely not. Do you even r-remember what happened? What that… that infernal m-machine  _ did _ ?”

Sans’ expression darkened. “i remember better than anyone. but i figured if anyone knew about timeline-jumping, it’d be  _ him _ .”

“ _ He _ doesn’t e-exist anymore! That machine erased Doctor…. D-Doctor… Sans, I can’t even r-remember his name. Do you understand j-just how dangerous that thing is?”

“his name is gaster,” Sans corrected her. “doctor gaster. and yeah, i definitely know how dangerous that thing is. i was there, remember? i  _ watched _ it happen.” His tone had gone bitter at the memory. “but we didn’t have that determination stuff back then. it acts as a temporal stabilizer. if we route some of it through the confinement field, it should work this time, and we might even be able to reassemble g’s consciousness from the spacial print if we use a reverse-tachyon stream.”

“That’s…” That actually did make a lot of sense, but Alphys still didn’t want any part of it. “That’s a l-lot of ifs, Sans.”

“yeah, well, it’s either that or wait for some psycho-child to come and hack us all to pieces. i’m usually not a very proactive guy, but…” he sighed. Alphys hadn’t seen him this worked up for a very long time. “i gotta do this, alphys. and i might be good on paper, but i’ve never been half the engineer you are. there’s no way i can get that thing up and running without you.”

“S-Sans, I know you haven’t b-been in the lab for a while, b-but… you’re brilliant. You don’t n-need me.”

“i don’t know how much you remember about g, but he was a pretty demanding guy. if someone on the team was underperforming, they were gone the next day. every person was there for a reason, and you were there ‘cause you’re the best engineer in the underground. i’m not an engineer alphys, i’m a physicist. so please. i need you right now.  _ all  _ of us need you.”

Alphys sighed and rubbed her eyes beneath her glasses. “I guess you know a shortcut t-to Snowdin?”

Sans smiled and extended his hand. In the blink of an eye, the two were standing in Sans’ basement lab - and the sound of a whoopee cushion filled the air. Alphys tried to give him a disapproving glare, but she couldn’t help but giggle. “Some things n-never change, huh?” she asked.

“nope. machine’s right there. i think most of the tools you need are around, but if i’m missing something, just let me know and i’ll grab it from your lab, k?” Alphys nodded and shoved the tarp covering the machine aside, waving away a cloud of dust with her hand. This was going to take a lot of work.


	2. Things are Easier When You're No Longer Alone

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Things are easier when you've got people that love you behind you to keep you going.

Alphys screamed in frustration as she threw her wrench to the ground. She had almost forgotten just how complicated this blasted machine was in the first place. It seemed like every time she fixed one part, two more broke. It was becoming  _ really _ infuriating, and it was extremely difficult to make Alphys angry.

“you alright there, al?” Sans looked up from the laptop he’d brought down to the lab; there was a stack of empty ketchup bottles next to him. He got up and walked over to her. “ya need help with anything?”

“No, no, I’m f-fine,” she sighed. “Just f-frustrated.” Sans nodded as she picked up the wrench again. “H-How are the algorithms coming?”

“the ones for the machine? slowly, but i think i’m getting somewhere. as for our, uh, deadline… we’ve got about two weeks, if we’re lucky.”

Alphys shook her head in dismay. This situation just wasn’t getting any better. “Sans, can you t-turn this while I hold these two p-pieces together?” She offered him the wrench.

“sure thing,” he said, kneeling down to help her with the machinery. He chuckled a little. “just like old times, huh?”

“Y-Yeah,” she laughed. Then, she swore loudly as the machine sparked and shocked her. “I swear this thing is out to get me or something!” She nursed her injured hand.

Sans finished tightening the bolt and stood up. “hey... have you gone on an actual date with undyne yet?”

Alphys blushed a little. “W-What? N-N-No, not, uh…”

Sans just smirked. “why don’cha call it a day for now and go spend some time with her? sometimes a break is good for you. take it from me.” He gave her a wink.

Alphys rolled her eyes. “There’s n-no time for that kind of thing r-right now, Sans - if this p-plan doesn’t work…”

“i’m not gonna be done with the programs any time soon, al. you’ve got some time. c’mon - i betcha she’ll know just how to encourage you.” He gave her a pat on the back, and Alphys sighed.

“A-Alright. I’ll see you tomorrow, Sans.”

Alphys walked out of the basement and into the house, where Undyne, Papyrus, Frisk, and Toriel were playing a card game on the living room carpet. Undyne immediately perked up as she entered. “Hey, Alphys! How’s the plan-thing you and Sans are cooking up coming?”

“U-Um, it’s going… okay. I-I’m taking a break while Sans f-finishes something,” Alphys said.

“Sweet! Hey, do you want us to deal you in?” Undyne gestured to the cards.

“N-No thanks, um… Sans s-suggested I ask you something. Um. Something… p-private?” She laughed nervously. Undyne gave her a smile.

“Sure. Hey, Asgore! Come play for me!” Toriel attempted to protest, but Undyne had already jumped up and taken Alphys outside. Asgore walked out of the kitchen shyly, and Frisk and Papyrus scooted apart a little to make room for him.

“So what did you wanna ask me?” Undyne said as she closed the door, waiting expectantly.

Alphys started blushing again. “W-W-Well, I, uh… I mean… I j-just wanted t-to, um, s-see if you, uh… you d-don’t have to, b-but, I was th-thinking that, u-uh…” Undyne just stood there patiently. Alphys took a deep breath. “W-Would y-you, um… g-go on a d-date with m-me?”

It was Undyne’s turn to blush. “Uhhhhh… a… a date? Like… now?”

“Um… yes?” Alphys’ voice had dropped to a mousy squeak.

“S-Sure!” Undyne said, trying to cover her own blush. “If you really want to that much.”

“Y-You d-don’t have to--”

“No, no! I DO want to. It’s just, uh, sudden is all. But I do want to. Really. Say, uh… do you think you could convince Mettaton to let us go to his resort or something?”

“Uh… s-sure! I-If that’s what you want.”  
“Cool. I’m gonna go home and get dressed, and I’ll meet you at the lab, alright?”

Alphys nodded eagerly. “O-Okay!” Undyne smiled and walked towards Waterfall.

* * *

“Asgore?” Frisk asked quietly. Toriel had followed Papyrus into the kitchen to help with a cooking disaster, and the two were alone in the skeleton brothers’ living room. Asgore turned to them, a little startled.

“Yes, little one?”

“I think you and I need to talk about some things.”

“Well… yes. I suppose we do.” Frisk moved over to sit close to him.

“I want you to know that I don’t blame you,” Frisk began. “You did what you thought was best in an impossible situation. So, I forgive you for trying to kill me. In previous timelines, anyway.”

Asgore gave them a little smile. “Really?”

“Yes. Now, I have a question for you: can you forgive me for everything I’ve done?”

Asgore thought for a moment as Frisk stared at him intently. Then he smiled again. “I think both of us are well acquainted with impossible situations,” he said, giving them a pat on the back. “So yes, I will forgive you. I think it is time all of us moved on.” He stared into the kitchen after Toriel, and his eyes turned sad. “I think the consequences we’ve met so far are enough.” Asgore nearly jumped as Frisk leaned over and hugged him. The gesture was a little robotic and hollow, but Asgore appreciated it anyway. He hugged Frisk back.

* * *

 

Undyne pulled Alphys’ chair out as they reached their table, trying to be a gentlewoman. That was how you were supposed to act on a date, right? What had she been thinking, suggesting they go to MTT resort? This place was way too fancy for her. Alphys seemed to be enjoying herself, though, and that was the important part. Besides, that blush was just  _ so _ cute.

Mettaton appeared in a waiter costume, carrying two plates covered in silver domes. He was in his box form still, since Alphys had put the finishing touches on his human-esque body on the back burner to finish whatever machine was in Sans’ basement. He set the plates down, lit the candle on the table, and wheeled away after clapping to turn the lights down. “Enjoy, beauties!” Undyne thought he sounded like he was up to something; but then again, she always thought he was up to something.

She lifted the cover off of her plate to reveal a freshly-cooked steak - in the shape of Mettaton’s face. Of course. It looked like Alphys had gotten a Glamburger. She picked at it shyly as both women waited for the other to say something.

“Y’know,” Undyne finally spoke up, “I’ve wanted to do this for a while now.”

Alphys blushed again. So cute. “R-Really?”

“Yeah, I just… never found the right time or the right words to tell you. You’re just… you’re awesome, you know that? You’re cute, and funny, and passionate - and I’m just really glad you feel the same way.”

“W-Well, I mean…” Alphys adjusted her glasses, unsuccessfully attempting to cover her blush. “H-How could I not? You’re s-so strong, and s-sweet, and… and you a-always make me feel b-better about myself. So, uh… thank you. F-For caring about s-someone like me.” Undyne smiled and started eating her steak.

* * *

 

Papyrus put the last cleaned dish back into the cabinet as Sans shuffled into the house. Everyone had gone home for the night; Sans walked towards the refrigerator wordlessly.

“HELLO, BROTHER! HOW IS THE MACHINE-PLAN COMING ALONG?”

“s’going fine, pap,” he said, clearly exhausted. He opened the fridge. “is there any more ketchup in here? i wanted to grab some more before i got back to work.”

“BROTHER, IT’S LATE! EVEN THE GREAT PAPYRUS NEEDS A LONG NAP AFTER A LONG DAY OF HARD WORK!”

“you mean sleep,” Sans chuckled as he abandoned his search for the ketchup. He’d used his entire reserve, it seemed. He’d have to ask Grillby for some more.

“YES, YES, WHATEVER IT’S CALLED,” Papyrus waved the comment away with his hand. “AND IF  _ I _ NEED SLEEP, THEN YOU  _ DEFINITELY _ NEED SOME. BESIDES, USING KETCHUP TO STAY AWAKE ALL NIGHT IS NOT HEALTHY!”

“i have to get this done, papyrus. i can handle a little sleep deprivation. i’ll be fine - hey!” Papyrus lifted his brother off of the ground and over his shoulder.

“A LITTLE, MAYBE, BUT YOU’VE BARELY GOTTEN  _ ANY _ SLEEP RECENTLY. I’M NOT TAKING ‘NO’ FOR AN ANSWER. WE ARE GOING TO BED.”

Sans sighed and let Papyrus carry him up the stairs. He plopped Sans down on the racecar bed. “uh, pap… this is your bed.”

“YES,” Papyrus said simply, taking a fresh blanket out of the closet. “I KNOW YOU HAVE BEEN HAVING NIGHTMARES LATELY. AND, WELL… WITH EVERYTHING GOING ON… I REALIZE MANY OF THEM ARE PROBABLY ABOUT ME.”

Sans’ eyelights softened. “aw, pap. i’m okay, really. you don’t hafta worry about me.”

Papyrus squinted at him disapprovingly. “I AM YOUR BROTHER, SO YES, I HAVE TO WORRY ABOUT YOU. I WOULD LECTURE YOU ABOUT NOT TELLING ME ANYTHING, BUT WE HAVE ALREADY HAD THAT CONVERSATION. SO, INSTEAD…” He pulled off his boots carefully and laid down next to Sans in his battle body, then covered the both of them with the blanket. “YOU WILL SLEEP NEXT TO ME, WHERE YOU KNOW I AM SAFE, AND I WILL SLEEP NEXT TO YOU, WHERE I CAN MAKE SURE YOU DO NOT SNEAK OFF IN THE MIDDLE OF THE NIGHT!”

Sans sighed and attempted to get up. “i dunno, papyrus. this thing’s really important, and i’ve gotta--”

“NO.” Papyrus said, pushing him back down. “YOU ARE A SKELETON, NOT A ZOMBIE, AND YOU WILL BE OF NO USE TO ANYONE HALF-DEAD FROM LACK OF REST. YOU’RE NOT ALONE ANYMORE, SANS! YOU HAVE ME, AND ALL OUR FRIENDS TO HELP YOU NOW. AND WHILE I DO NOT KNOW MUCH ABOUT TIMELINES AND SCIENCEY THINGS, I  _ DO _ KNOW ABOUT YOU. YOU’LL COME THROUGH FOR EVERYONE, IN TIME. BUT FOR NOW, YOU NEED REST.” Papyrus leaned over and wrapped Sans in a hug.

Sans sighed and smiled at him, returning the hug. “okay. thanks, pap.”

“ANY TIME, BROTHER!” Papyrus smiled. Sans was already snoring softly. “GOOD NIGHT.”

* * *

 

Undyne and Alphys stood at the entrance of the Hotland lab; their date had gone well. Once they started talking about anime, the awkward silence had vanished almost instantly.

“W-Well, um… th-thank you f-for tonight, Undyne. I-I had a r-really great time!” Alphys said, rubbing the back of her neck sheepishly.

“Me too!” Undyne smiled broadly. “So, um…” A light blush crept onto her cheeks. “Can I, uh… have a good-night kiss?” Alphys just stared at her blankly, and her entire face turned red. “Uh, nevermind. Sorry, that was a little--”

Alphys jumped up and pressed her lips to Undyne’s. Undyne caught her in her arms and held her close as Alphys wrapped her arms around Undyne’s neck, and they both relaxed into the embrace. The world seemed to fade out around them; after a moment that seemed to last forever, yet ended far too soon, Alphys pulled away and laughed nervously. Undyne just gave her a smile and set her back on the ground.

“G-Good night,” Alphys said, waving as the door closed between them. Undyne waved back a little, just a little lovestruck.

“Good night,” she said, a little belated. She laughed a little and started walking back towards Waterfall. She really did hate Hotland’s heat.

But she’d move here permanently if it meant she got even just one more evening like that one.


	3. FUN

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Frisk explains FUN values, and things begin to click into place for Sans and Alphys.

“blah blah blah blah blah pun,” Sans said, tapping away at his laptop. He seemed refreshed and energetic today.

“Blah blah blah blah blah science blah blah I’m cute blah blah,” Alphys replied, tweaking something on the big, clunky machine in the skeletons’ basement with a screwdriver.

Undyne leaned against the counter in the back of the room watching the two of them work. She had absolutely no idea what was going on, but she’d be damned if Alphys wasn’t adorable when she got excited about nerdy stuff. Although, it was starting to get annoying that she couldn’t even get a word in edgewise.

Thankfully, Frisk walked in at that moment, carrying a trio of take-out bags from Grillby’s. The bottoms of the bags were grease-stained, and Undyne got just a little excited. Both for the food and for company she could actually understand.

Sans used his magic to pull one of the bags out of Frisk’s hands, floating it through the air to himself. “thanks, pal,” he said, pulling out a bottle of ketchup from the sack and taking a long swig from it. Frisk walked over to Alphys and handed her hers.

“Oh, thank y-you,” Alphys smiled, putting down her tools and sitting on the ground to enjoy her lunch. Frisk then hopped up onto the counter next to Undyne and offered her the last bag. Undyne took it and ruffled their hair.

“Thanks, punk. Aren’t you hungry?” Undyne pulled out a cheeseburger and took a big bite of it; grease dripped down her chin. She felt just a little guilty, but not too much. A girl could indulge herself every once in a while, right?

“...Papyrus insisted I have lunch with him. Toriel and Asgore left to have a discussion, and he wanted to spend some time with me.”

Sans chuckled. “how’d that go?”

“I think I lost HP,” Frisk said, deadpan. Alphys and Undyne stifled a few giggles.

“hey, his cooking’s not  _ that _ bad,” Sans said defensively. Sure, he acknowledged that Papyrus’ cooking could use some work, but he never let anyone directly insult Papyrus in any way.

“I’m being serious,” Frisk said. “I think he accidentally dumped the entire container of pepper into the sauce.”

Sans rolled his eyelights and checked the human. Then his eye sockets widened. “oh, buddy,” Sans said in sympathy. “you want some ketchup to wash it down?” He offered the bottle to them, and they gave him a very unamused glare. “What?” Sans shrugged as if he hadn’t said anything strange and took another gulp of condiment.

A thought came to Undyne. “Hey… Papyrus and I haven’t had a cooking lesson since Frisk came here! I better go find him. We don’t want our skills getting rusty!” Undyne jumped up and headed for the door, taking the rest of her lunch with her. “See ya later, guys!”

“not in our kitchen,” Sans warned her. “i saw what you did to your house, and you’re not burning down ours!”

“B-Bye, Undyne!” Alphys called after her.

Frisk pulled a slice of butterscotch-cinnamon pie from their inventory and began eating it. Toriel must have baked it fresh for them. “Do you want me to go supervise them?” They offered.

Sans thought about it, then shrugged. “i installed a sprinkler system recently - too many close calls. it should be fine. i hope. besides, i think alphys and i should get ya up to speed on things.” Frisk nodded, indicating they were listening. “so, for starters, me and al are trying to find an old friend of ours. his name is doctor gaster; he knows all sorts of stuff about timelines, so we figured he might know how to get us between timelines so we could confront chara, or trap them, or whatever we decide to do.”

Frisk stiffened at the mention of Gaster, and Sans stopped talking. “something wrong, kid?”

“The man who speaks in hands,” they said, looking at their shoes.

“how... how do you know that?” Sans looked legitimately disturbed, and his eyelights disappeared.

“I… I don’t know how to explain it.”

“try.” Sans stood up and walked over to them. He wasn’t taking no for an answer. Alphys followed him.

Frisk was silent for a few minutes, trying to find the right words. “I’ve heard him mentioned before, but only at certain FUN values. Anytime I asked anyone else about it, they never had an idea - except for you, Sans. But you were always very adamant that I never ask you about it again, so I didn’t.”

“yeah, well… he’s a touchy subject for me. now what the heck is a fun value?”

Frisk again had trouble finding the proper words to explain. “It’s something I can check with my determination. It’s a hidden stat behind the Save screen.”

“you’re gonna have to go a little more in-depth than that, bud. i dunno what you’re talking about.”

Frisk sighed and stretched their hands out in front of them, and their eyes glowed red. “Whenever I manipulate the timeline, I see a screen. You can’t see it, right?” Both Alphys and Sans shook their heads. “Right. Well, this screen is what I use to save, load, reset, and so on. It also gives me information - how long I’ve been in the Underground, my LV… and the name of my companion.”

“C-Companion?” Alphys asked.

Frisk nodded. “It used to say Chara’s name in the top left, but it’s not there anymore. Anyway… after a while, I figured out that there was another layer behind this screen.” They pointed at the empty air with their finger as if they were pushing a button. “But none of the stuff on the second screen makes any sense to me. The only thing I found useful was the timeline’s FUN value.

“So… ugh. This is a lot to explain. After a few timelines, I started predicting what you all would say and do. You know how that works.” Frisk sighed apologetically as Sans glared at them. “But sometimes, things would happen that I couldn’t predict, and that I didn’t make happen. The only pattern I could find is that those things tended to happen around certain FUN values. So I started calling them ‘FUN events’.”

“okay, so… first off, how does this fun value thing work? and second, what kind of ‘things’ are you talking about?” Sans was trying to piece together the information, but there were still gaps.

“As far as I know, it’s just a random number assigned to the timeline, and I’ve never been able to affect it. It only changes when I reset and it’s always between one and a hundred. As far as the events… some were weirder than others.

“Sometimes, you’d prank call me about my refrigerator,” Frisk said, nodding to Sans, “and sometimes, Alphys would misdial when ordering a pizza and call me. Both happened in the exact same region of Snowdin, pretty shortly after I left the Ruins.” Alphys and Sans shared a look. Neither of them had done such a thing to their knowledge. “Others were… different. A lot of them happened in Hotland - I’d meet these weird grey monsters, and they’d talk about Gaster in some way. And as soon as I turned my back, they disappeared.”

“that’s... wait. al, you remember the theory from…?” Sans turned to Alphys

“W-Wait… yeah, I think so. The Frequency U-Undertone theory, right?”

Frisk tilted their head in question, and Sans sighed. “i, uh… don’t know how much you know about science, buddy. so... you know that all matter vibrates, right?” Frisk nodded. “so, that vibration happens in space. one of our colleagues theorized that matter also makes vibrations in  _ time _ \- and that was what kept everything together in one timestream. the frequency a certain timeline vibrates at would be called its undertone - so, maybe ‘fun’ stands for frequency undertone number?”

Frisk nodded their head. “Your guess is as good as mine.”

“S-So, um… do y-you think you could map out a l-list of FUN events that happened t-to you? So we can r-review the data?” Alphys asked.

Frisk nodded and asked for a piece of paper and a pencil, which Sans got for them. They took a few minutes to write down a list, and then handed it to the two scientists.

“alright, let’s see what we got. so... i call them between 40 and 45, and alphys calls between 46 and 50? the... grey monsters - that’s what you called ‘em, right? are between 61 and 63, and all in different slots. can you tell us a little more about them?” Sans began looking at the list, asking questions as he went.

“One looked like that ficus-licking guy at the resort,” Frisk told him, and then turned to Alphys, “and another like that guy who bought the donut from Muffet. The last one was just… a big head affixed to the ground.” Alphys and Sans shared a look.

“Those… they s-sound vaguely familiar, b-but…”

“yeah, same. but our memory probably isn’t all that reliable, so it’s probably a safe assumption that they’re who we think they are. you sure you didn’t see them at any other fun values?”

“Positive. Even then, they only appeared some of the time - but only at those values.”

“okay... any of these seem particularly important? ‘wrong number song’, ‘nightmare mode’, ‘clam girl’... ‘goner kid’?” Sans started listing off events, trying to figure out what he should look into more closely.

“Goner Kid was… different. They were greyed out like the other ones, but they never mentioned Gaster. So I put them separate.”

“What a-about this last one… the ‘missing hallway and the mystery man’?” Alphys asked.

“A few times, in Waterfall, there was this… extra stretch of hallway, that wasn’t there before. And once - and only once - that hallway had this… grey door. When I went inside, there was this strange monster. He looked sort of like a skeleton, except… melting. Almost like an amalgamate.” Frisk looked toward Alphys pointedly, but it was Sans’ eyes that widened.

“that was gaster! what did he say?” Sans almost sounded excited.

“I don’t know,” Frisk replied. “There were these weird hand-symbols that appeared over his head, and I specifically remembered the Riverperson telling me to ‘beware the man that speaks in hands’. So, I ran away, and when I came back, the door wasn’t there anymore.”

Sans took the paper and began typing furiously at his laptop.

“U-Uh, Sans? What a-are you doing?”

“if the frequency undertone theory is correct, we should be able to use the machine to modify our universal frequency,” Sans told her. “then we can go back to that exact value and find g.”

“S-Sans, w-we don’t know if--”

“this is the best lead we got so far, al. i’m running with it.”

Alphys sighed, but nodded and went back to fixing the machine. “W-We should be ready soon, F-Frisk. When we are, c-can we ask you to observe the F-Fun value and then t-take us to where you saw G-Gaster?” Frisk nodded their head.


	4. The Grey Room

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Frisk and Sans meet Gaster.

“i think we’re done,” Sans said, running through his calculations for the tenth time and checking that the rest of Alphys’ leftover determination had been put into the machine correctly. He was going to be certain that everything would run smoothly this time around. “k, we’re going to try altering the frequency undertone. you said we were at 75 right now, right? and we need 66 for gaster.” Frisk nodded, and Sans took a deep breath as the machine flared to life. The three in the lab felt gravity distort as a pinpoint vortex appeared in the machine’s large central chamber.

“Is that supposed to happen?” Frisk asked, a little worried.

“Y-Yes. I-It appears stable this t-time.” Alphys said, monitoring the machine from a tablet she’d brought with her.

“This time?” Alphys and Sans ignored them.

“watch that fun value and tell us what’s happening, buddy,” Sans said, also monitoring the device from his laptop. Frisk opened their save screen and peered inside.

“The FUN value’s dropping,” Frisk informed them, and the two scientists gave a little cheer. “70… 69… 68…”

Sans began to shut the device down, slowing the FUN’s descent. “67… 66. Stop now.” The machine powered down completely, and the gravitational distortion faded.

“we good, kiddo?” Sans asked, and Frisk nodded. “good. let’s go find g.” Sans and Alphys followed Frisk out into the Snowdin cold as they began to walk towards Waterfall. “somewhere we can shortcut to? don’t really feel like walking today.”

Frisk rolled their eyes, but replied anyway. “Take us to your telescope.” One shortcut later, the three stood in Waterfall, looking down a particularly long hallway.

“I-I d-didn’t know you had a t-telescope, Sans. What’s it t-trained on?” Alphys asked, curious. Sans could barely hold back a sly grin.

“why don’tcha see for yourself?” Sans asked, risking a glance at Frisk. They nodded approvingly, telling Alphys it was a good idea. Bless them, joining in on a prank. Sans bet they actually had a pretty good sense of humor when they had a soul.

Alphys removed her glasses, and peered into the telescope, only to move it around in confusion. She stepped back and replaced her glasses on her face, before staring at Sans for an explanation. He just smiled, and Alphys suddenly reached up to her eye. Her fingers came back smudged with pink ink.

“I c-completely walked into that one, d-didn’t I?” she said, and Sans and Alphys both burst out laughing. “Shame on y-you, Frisk! Sans, you’re a t-terrible influence,” Alphys scolded after a while, still giggling.

“I just thought it would be nice to see you tickled  _ pink _ after everything that’s gone on,” Frisk said innocently, and Sans snickered. Yup, they definitely had a good sense of humor, and Sans hoped that he was at least partially responsible for ruining it. Between him and Tori, Frisk never stood a chance.

“I-If you’re done j-joking around,” Alphys said, still smiling, “l-let’s go to that d-door.”

Frisk nodded and led them forwards. Sure enough, there  _ was _ a strange, grey door planted directly in the wall of the hallway. The three shared a glance, and Frisk opened the door and stepped inside. The portal slammed shut between Sans and Alphys, shoving the skeleton into the room and locking Alphys outside.

“H-Hey! What’s g-going on?” She pounded on the door with her hand and tried to yank it open, but it wouldn’t budge. “S-Sans? F-Frisk? Hello?” No one replied. Alphys pulled out her phone and began dialing. “H-Hold on, I’m g-going to get help!” She called through the door, hoping they heard her.

* * *

Frisk whipped around as the door slammed, and Sans took a look around. The room was… empty. Grey floor, grey ceiling, four grey walls, and the shut door. Empty, except for the strange monster sitting at its center.

It looked like a skeleton, with a crack running upwards across his skull from his right eye-socket and another running down from his left. There were circular holes in his hands, he was hunched over like a beggar, and what appeared to be a black lab coat hung from his frame. His entire body seemed to wobble and quiver, as if he weren’t quite solid.

Symbols began to flash above his head, and Sans found that he recognised them.

“YOU ARE THERE. TIME THIS NOT YOU WILL ESCAPE.”

Sans thought he was translating correctly, but the words seemed jumbled. He stepped forward. “g? doctor gaster? is that you?” Whatever he was saying, it seemed threatening. Sans thought it best to try and placate him, and motioned for Frisk to stand behind him.

“ASIDE STEP. I CARRY WILL TASK MY OUT.”

“uh, no. i need to talk with you first. do you remember who i am?”

“MOVE SANS, YES NOW. ARE THEY DANGEROUS. WILL REMOVE I THEM.”

Sans paused, trying to reconstruct his sentences. “let’s hold off on the, uh, removing for now. we needta talk. do ya know how long i’ve been looking for you?”

“TIME IRRELEVANT IS. WE TALK CAN AFTER, LATER DISPATCH I DEMON.”

“demon seems a little harsh, g, and we’re going to talk  _ now _ . we’ve got a psychopath on the loose, destroying timelines, and we need your help.”

“AWARE AM PROBLEM OF THIS I. DEAL CHARA I WITH WILL, FRISK I AFTER WITH DEAL.” Gaster raised his hand, and Frisk was dragged to him with blue magic.

“hey!” Sans tried to pull them back with his own blue magic, but it wasn’t working. Gaster was too strong. The wall behind Gaster crumbled away, leaving behind a sucking black void. He moved towards it.

Frisk struggled in midair, but they couldn’t resist Gaster’s pull. “THREAT, A NOW LONGER BE YOU WILL NO.”

“g, they’re on our side! you don’t need to do this!” He kept pulling with his magic, to no avail.

Gaster sighed and tried to compose himself, slowing down his sentences in an effort to make them more coherent. “AS LONG AS THEY EXIST, ALWAYS THEY WILL BE TEMPTED TO ABUSE THEIR POWER. YOU WILL BE FREE  _ NEVER _ .” The thought gave Sans pause, and his mind began to cloud over. They void was opening up… something in him. “I WILL HELP STOP YOU CHARA. FRISK IS UNNECESSARY. WE DO NOT THEM NEED.”

Sans’ magic stopped as he lost concentration, the void’s strange power muddling his thoughts. Gaster was right - as long as Frisk was around, Sans would never really be free. Even if they never reset again, he would always have to live under the looming shadow of their determination. Maybe it was better this way. Maybe he should just let this happen, and work with Gaster to take care of Chara.

“Help me! Please!” Frisk shouted, hoping either Sans or someone outside of the door would come to their rescue.

A twisted smile crept across Gaster’s face as Sans stood there, frozen. His eyelights were extinguished, deep in thought. “BUT NOBODY CAME.”

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I would like to point out that this work had exactly 66 hits when I posted this chapter.


	5. Believing

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Sans makes a decision.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> The void is throwing flashbacks of past timelines at Sans, in case this chapter is a little confusing. He's getting all the memories - good, bad, and in-between - and it's those memories that he uses to make the decision on whether or not he's going to fight for Frisk.

“You’d be dead where you stand.”

Sans could practically hear the human’s heartbeat pick up from across the table, and he saw their fists clench at their sides. More specifically, clench around the empty pistol inside their pocket. “hey, lighten up, bucko!” Sans chuckled a little. Sure, the kid might have killed a few dozen people, but he really didn’t feel like picking a fight with them now. Or ever, for that matter. “i’m just joking with you.” The human really didn’t look like they believed him. In fact, judging from their expression, it looked like they thought he was going to stab them in the back as soon as they turned around. Was he really this untrustworthy?

* * *

 

“if you have some sort of special power… isn’t it your responsibility to do the right thing?”

To their credit, the human actually paused and seriously considered the question. It took them a while to answer. “Yes. I suppose it is.”

Sans almost, _almost_ laughed out loud - at the irony, or the hypocrisy, he wasn’t sure. “ah. i see.” Sans figured it out - it was the grief. “Then why’d you kill my brother?”

The human considered this question seriously as well before moving on.

* * *

 

“besides, haven’t i done a great job protecting you? i mean, look at yourself. you haven’t died a single time.” The human gave him a glare with some sort of mixture of hurt, rage, and disgust. Sans’ composure nearly broke. “hey, what’s that look supposed to mean? am i wrong…?” The human’s eyes held an irrevocable ‘yes’.

“heh,” Sans huffed as he walked away from the table. Stars, he must look like the biggest jerk in the Underground. Probably worse, considering he’d just joked about them _dying_. Repeatedly, most likely. He’d secretly hoped that he and the anomaly could become friends; that maybe he could convince them to stop reseting. Clearly he’d botched that opportunity, because Sans was pretty sure he’d hate him too after that comment.

It really was a shame. Sans… actually kinda liked the kid. Hopefully they wouldn’t hold his laziness against everyone else.

...It probably never mattered anyway.

* * *

 

Sans really didn’t know what he was expecting when the human arrived at the judgement hall. Maybe some sort of freaky, twisted smile, or demonic rage, or even just a little remorse. But not this cold, steely resolve - it was like the human was just _dead_ inside. Like they just didn’t care about anything - the monsters, the killing, the fight they were about to have. There should have been some reaction. Fear, anticipation, maniacal glee, _anything_.

But there wasn’t, and it didn’t really matter. Sans really didn’t feel like doing anything after losing Papyrus - a grief that somehow felt familiar, yet still crushed his very soul. He wanted nothing more just to curl up into a ball and wait for a reset, wait to forget the crippling sadness, wait for Papyrus to come back and wake him up from this nightmare and scold him for being lazy. He wouldn’t have done anything, normally - but this case was special.

Because there was one thing he felt stronger than the loss of his brother - the timeline was disintegrating around the human’s combined LV and determination. If he didn’t stop the human here and now, he would never see Papyrus again.

The thought was rather motivating.

* * *

 

“c’mere, pal.” The human actually _ran_ to him and wrapped their arms around his ribcage, starting to sob and desperately tell him how sorry they were. As if he really _was_ their friend.

Maybe they would just reset now, and they’d have a happy ending.

Sans would be lying if he wasn’t just a little cruelly pleased by the human’s dying gasp. Friend or no friend, there just wasn’t any forgiving what they’d done. It was probably a terrible idea, but it was exactly what they deserved. There wasn’t any way to dispute that.

“if we’re really friends, you won’t come back,” he tacked on as the light faded from the human’s eyes. He guessed it was time to see just how sorry they were.

_Not sorry enough_ , the thought popped into Sans’ head. He didn’t know from where, but it looked like the human had finally arrived in the judgement hall. And hoo boy, did they look _pissed_. They must have been subjected to some grade-A pranking.

* * *

 

Sans couldn’t tell if he felt numb, or just so much pain that he couldn’t think anymore. They were _there_ . They were _right there_ . They’d seen the _sun_ , Frisk looked genuinely happy, and just for a moment, Sans thought that he was finally free.

And then, Papyrus was shattered into dust _right in front_ of him. There was no warning, nothing he could have done - the person he’d been fighting for this entire time, gone as if he were nothing. Then Undyne. Then Alphys. Then Toriel. Then Asgore.

Frisk had dragged him back Underground, to safety - which was probably crueler than letting him die with everything else he cared about. What was the point now?

“Sans,” their voice called through the thick, black apathy drowning Sans’ mind. He didn’t even look up. “Sans,” Frisk said more forcefully, tilting his head up to look at them. It vaguely occurred to him that he had fallen to his knees. “Sans, look at me. It’s going to be okay. I’m going to go back and prevent all of this, alright? I’ll bring them back.”

When he couldn’t even muster up the energy to respond, they wrapped their arms around his ribcage and held him tightly, hiding their own face in his hoodie. They were crying, and their voice started cracking. “I’m not going to rest until I get all of you your happy ending, alright? I’ll never give up, no matter what it takes.” They pulled away, and Sans finally looked at them. “I promise.”

* * *

 

Frisk felt themself thrown through the air, flying towards the vortex of nothingness at the back of the grey room. They had no soul, and couldn’t feel any emotion. But, just like Flowey, they discovered that their determination did allow them to feel one thing.

They weren’t ready to die yet.

Just as the thought hit them, they slammed into something solid. Frisk blinked their eyes, and found themself pressed against a wall of bones.

Gaster turned to Sans, a look of disappointment on his face. “REALLY CHOICE _THAT_ YOUR IS?”

Sans’ eye illuminated the room with blue and gold magic, and he yanked Frisk toward him with a movement of his arm. Gaster didn’t try to resist him, and the child flew into his arms. They wrapped their own arms around him tightly, hanging on for dear life, and Sans gave them a rub on the back. “s’okay, buddy. i gotcha.”

Sans pushed Frisk behind him and looked at Gaster. “look, g - i really don’t wanna fight ya. and you made some good points - the kid _is_ dangerous.” Frisk started shaking. “but even with all the mistakes they’ve made, they’ve spent way more time trying to make up for those mistakes - all for us. all things considered… they’re a pretty good friend.” Sans gave Frisk a wink. “me? can’t exactly say the same. but, i think they’ve earned a little loyalty.”

Sans took a deep breath, still not quite sure of what he was doing. “so. if you wanna delete my pal here - you’re goin’ through me first.”

Gaster stood there silently for a long moment, and Sans started sweating. It seemed like forever until he spoke, once again making an effort to order his words correctly. “I MUST SAY, OF ALL POSSIBLE OUTCOMES, THIS IS THE NOT ONE I WAS EXPECTING. I DO NOT AGREE WITH YOUR DECISION - HOWEVER, I WILL IT RESPECT.” The wall suddenly reappeared, as if the void had never been there, and the assault of memories finally cleared from Sans’ head. “PERHAPS IT IS AS THEY SAY - NO FRISK, NO REWARD.”

Sans and Frisk both blinked, and then Sans began laughing hysterically. Man, tension was a pain in the pelvis.

A hint of a smile found its way to Gaster’s amorphous face. “IF THIS IS REALLY WHAT YOU BELIEVE IS BEST, I BELIEVE IT IS TIME WE DISCUSSED IDEAS FOR OUR PREDICAMENT CURRENT.”


	6. Allies

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Gaster has a plan to deal with Chara.

“so, uh… you’re really not gonna argue?” Sans asked as the door to the grey room swung open. Alphys peered inside, breathing a sigh of relief as she saw everyone was okay.

“YOUR INTERVENTION WOULD HAVE HAD EFFECT MINIMAL ON THE OUTCOME,” Gaster said, and Sans felt more than a little insulted. “HOWEVER, I… NO LONGER BELIEVE I HAVE THE RIGHT TO MY IMPOSE WILL UPON OTHERS. SO NO, I WILL NOT ARGUE THE FURTHER POINT.” With that, he began to drift towards the door, and Sans felt like he should have known what he meant by that. The thought escaped him as he and Frisk followed Gaster out of the strange room.

Waterfall echoed with a sound reminiscent of a stampede as Undyne, Papyrus, Asgore, and Toriel came rushing down the corridor. “Where’s the door?! I’ll kick it in and--” Undyne skidded to a stop as she saw everyone gathered outside of the door. “Hey, I thought you said they were in trouble!” She looked to Alphys.

“U-Um, I thought they w-were, but I think everything’s okay now. U-Uh… right?” She looked over to Sans, who nodded. “S-So, e-everyone… this is Doctor G-Gaster.”

The amorphous skeleton smiled at everyone, and then turned to Alphys. “IT IS A PLEASURE TO SEE YOU AGAIN, MISS… AM I SORRY.  _ DOCTOR _ ALPHYS.” He gave her a respectful nod, and she started blushing slightly.

“WOWIE, YOU’RE A SKELETON LIKE US! WE MUST BE RELATED!” Papyrus said, stepping forward to meet Gaster.

“yeah, pap, he’s actually our… uh. our…?” Sans’ face contorted in confusion. “uh, g? can ya help me out here?”

“THAT IS NO LONGER RELEVANT, SANS. WE HAVE MORE MATTERS IMPORTANT TO DISCUSS.” Gaster waved his hand dismissively.

“i’d say it’s pretty important,” Sans said, a little taken aback. He was pretty sure that Gaster was his family, and he wouldn’t tell him anything. Mostly sure, at least… the more he thought about it, the less certain he was.

Gaster merely sighed. “WE MAY TALK PRIVATELY ABOUT THE MATTER LATER, IF CONCERNS IT YOU THAT MUCH.” Sans was getting a little fed up with the constant dismissal, but he didn’t say anything else. Something told him it was an argument he wasn’t going to win.

“IN THE MEANTIME, IT IS THAT NECESSARY WE FORMULATE A PLAN TO DEAL WITH CHARA.”

Asgore and Toriel both looked shocked. “Chara? My child? What are… what are you talking about?” Toriel asked.

“The… entity Alphys told me about. How could that be Chara?” Asgore was just as distraught and confused. Everyone had avoided telling them just who had Frisk’s soul and had resorted to calling Chara the ‘entity’ whenever the king and queen were around.

Everyone stood in silence until Frisk spoke up. “Yes. The entity is Chara.”

Tears began to fall from Toriel’s eyes, and she began shaking her head in disbelief. “N-No, no. My… my precious child is  _ gone _ . I buried Chara in the Ruins, they could not… they would never do such a thing. No.”

Asgore reached a hand out to comfort her, but decided against it and withdrew it under his robes. “I agree with Toriel. Our Chara could never do any of these things.” He was holding back tears as well, it seemed.

Fortunately or unfortunately, Frisk didn’t have the capacity to understand their grief. They kept going. “I’m afraid you may not have known them as well as you think you did. Chara’s death wasn’t an accident. They poisoned themself so that Asriel could take their soul and collect human souls from the surface. In the end, Asriel couldn’t bring himself to hurt the humans, and he died.”

Toriel looked as if she had been stabbed at the mention of her other child. “No. No, no no no. No.” She kept repeating the word like a mantra as she stepped backward. Then, she ran back towards the Ruins.

Tears began to stain Asgore’s fur as well. “I… I should go make sure that she is alright,” He told everyone, excusing himself from the meeting. He dashed off after her.

“Way to go, whoever-you-are,” Undyne turned to Gaster. “I know I’m not the most delicate person around, but even I could have handled that with a little more tact.”

Gaster’s expression didn’t change much. “THEY WERE GOING TO LEARN AT SOME POINT. IT MIGHT AS BE WELL NOW.” Undyne continued to glare at him, but didn’t say anything else. “I HAVE A PLAN, IF YOU LIKE WOULD TO HEAR IT.”

“sure thing, g,” Sans said, trying to push past the awkward knot of tension in the air.

“I HAVE OBSERVED CHARA’S ACTIVITIES IN DETAIL. UPON DEATH, HUMAN THE RESETS AFTER APPROXIMATELY ONE POINT SEVEN MILLISECONDS. IF ANOTHER SOURCE OF DETERMINATION WAS PRESENT, IT WOULD LIKELY SIGNIFICANTLY TAKE LONGER. THIS TIME COULD BE USED RECAPTURE TO FRISK’S SOUL AND DEPRIVE CHARA OF THEIR DETERMINATION.”

“that sounds like a great plan, g,” Sans said, nodding his head. “means we just haveta wait for ‘em here.”

“We can’t beat them like that,” Frisk said. Everyone looked to them.

“What do you mean we can’t beat them?” Undyne asked.

“They’ve killed each and every one of you dozens of times by now,” Frisk said. “They know all your attack patterns by heart. You won’t be able to land a killing blow on them.”

“We can’t just give up,” Undyne said.

“I wasn’t suggesting that,” Frisk told her, “but we need some outside help. Someone that they can’t predict. There’s also the matter of getting us out of the barrier once this is all over. I just can’t find a way.”

“I ALSO MAY HAVE A SOLUTION FOR THIS,” Gaster piped in. “YOUR ERROR BEFORE WAS IN USING MONSTER MAGIC TO COMBAT HUMAN MAGIC, OR ENLISTING THE AID OF NONMAGICAL HUMANS. THE PEOPLE OF GROUP YOU FOUGHT WITH BEFORE IS CALLED THE COUNCIL OF SEVEN - THEY ARE DIRECT DESCENDANTS OF THE MAGES THAT CREATED THE BARRIER. HUMAN MAGIC WILL BE NECESSARY TO COMBAT THEM.”

“There aren’t any humans left with magic that I know of,” Frisk told him. “I didn’t know magic actually existed until I fell into the Underground.”

“YOU POSSESS IT YOURSELF, CHILD. DETERMINATION IS OF ONE THE SEVEN FORMS OF HUMAN MAGIC.” Frisk frowned; this was new information. “HUMANS CAN DEVELOP MAGICAL ABILITIES AFTER EXPOSURE TO STRONG CONCENTRATIONS OF MAGIC. WITH SO MANY MONSTERS IN TRAPPED A SMALL SPACE, THE UNDERGROUND’S AIR WOULD HAVE THIS EFFECT.”

Frisk thought for a moment, following Gaster’s logic. “The other fallen humans. They would have magic, too.”

“PRECISELY. THEY WOULD BE EXCELLENT ALLIES AGAINST CHARA AND THE SEVEN.”

“D-Doctor Gaster… those humans are all dead,” Alphys said. “Th-they can’t help us.”

Gaster smiled. “I AM ABLE TO ACCESS OTHER TIMELINES, DOCTOR. I CAN SEND YOU TO RETRIEVE THEM FROM THE PAST OF OTHER TIMELINES. THAT WAY, THE CURRENT TIMELINE IS UNAFFECTED.”

Everyone looked at each other and nodded, although Sans looked a little uncomfortable. “Alright. What are we waiting for, then? Let’s go get ‘em.” Undyne put her hands on her hips and looked at Gaster.

“I WILL NEED TO MAKE A FEW CALCULATIONS TO FIND THE IDEAL TIMELINES AND LOCATIONS FOR EXTRACTION EACH. IN THE MEANTIME, IT MAY BE ADVANTAGEOUS TO ASK FRISK FOR HELP WITH TRAINING AGAINST CHARA.”

“Yeah, good idea! C’mon punk, it’s training time!” Undyne picked the child up like a football and began to sprint away.

“D-Do you need help w-with the calculations, D-Doctor Gaster?” Alphys asked nervously. Gaster just gave her a soft smile.

“I AM AFRAID MY INTIMATE KNOWLEDGE OF THE TIMELINES ME MAKES THE ONLY SUITABLE PERSON FOR THIS TASK. YOU, HOWEVER, WILL NEEDED BE TO COLLECT ONE OF THE HUMANS,” he told her.

“W-What? N-No, I c-couldn’t--”

“YOU CONSISTENTLY UNDERESTIMATE YOUR DOCTOR, ABILITIES. YOU, PAPYRUS, UNDYNE, SANS, TORIEL, AND ASGORE MUST EACH RETRIEVE ONE OF THE HUMANS SIMULTANEOUSLY, FOR SAKE OF TIME. MUST FRISK REMAIN HERE TO PREVENT FLOWEY FROM TAMPERING WITH THE TIMELINE.”

“DO NOT WORRY, DOCTOR ALPHYS!” Papyrus patted her on the shoulder. “YOU WILL DO A GREAT JOB! COME, WE ALL MUST TRAIN FOR THE EXPEDITION!” Papyrus proceeded to lift Sans onto his shoulders and jog after Undyne, motioning for Alphys to follow.


	7. Pride and Loss

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Asgore and Toriel discuss their lost child, and Frisk has something they want to tell everyone.

Asgore found Toriel sitting in her reading chair in the Ruins. She had stopped crying, and stared at the floor. She didn’t protest when Asgore picked up a chair from the table and sat down across from her.

“Alphys sent me the tapes with her phone. I assume you have seen them as well?” Toriel asked him, still not moving her gaze from the floor.

“Yes.” Alphys had sent him the audio files of Asriel and Chara making the plan to get the human souls. It was late in the day now, and both royals were emotionally spent.

“And what are we to do?” She asked him.

“You received the plan as well, didn’t you? We are going to rescue the humans from the other timelines and defeat Chara.”

Toriel finally looked up. “They are our  _ child _ . We raised them,  _ I _ raised them. Do they truly mean so little to you?”

Asgore clenched his jaw and sighed. “No. I love them. Just as I still love Asriel, and I still love you.”

The queen’s eyes burned with cold fire. “Then how can you  _ dare _ justify everything you have done?”

Asgore looked down at his paws. “You have always seen the world in black and white, Toriel. It is never that easy. I still love Chara, but I cannot allow them to continue killing as they have. Whatever child we thought we raised died with the poison. Chara is gone, Tori - and this phantom wearing their face needs to be stopped.”

“It is all so simple for you, is it not?”

“I did what I thought was best, Tori. I just wanted everyone to have hope. Perhaps my methods of doing so were wrong, but… can you really blame me for my intentions?”

Toriel looked away from him. “The price was too high.” She rose from her chair, and glared at him. “I will do what I must to protect my child - even if that means fighting Chara. I want to make something clear, however. I will  _ never _ forgive you for what you have done. I cared for the humans you so callously murdered as if they were my own children, for a time. You have stolen  _ six _ children from me Asgore. I am no longer your wife, and I am not your friend. I will work with you on this endeavor - but after this, I never want to see you again.”

Asgore attempted to put on an air of formality to mask the tears welling up in his eyes again. “I understand, Tori… el.” The former queen nodded and walked from the room, and Asgore felt the last fragment of hope he had held onto for so long flicker out and die.

* * *

Undyne landed a direct hit on Frisk with her training spear as they attempted to dodge out of the way. Frisk nodded at her and put their stick back in their inventory. “I think we should stop for the night. We all need rest.”

“Yeah, you’re probably right.” Undyne conceded. “This really did help, though. Changing the attacks I’m thinking about really seemed to make it harder for you to dodge.”

“It did,” Frisk assured her, rubbing what was sure to become a bruise on their chest. “But before we go to sleep for the night, there’s something I want to say to the four of you.” Papyrus, Sans, Alphys, and Undyne all gathered around the human, interested in what they had to say.

“I can’t say this with as much feeling as I would like, but I remember how I used to feel about it, and that version of me would have wanted me to tell you just how proud of all of you I am.”

“Huh?” Everyone looked confused.

“For the way you all acted in the last timeline. I never got to tell you, for obvious reasons. But during those battles - despite everything else I was feeling - I was really proud of you.” They turned towards Papyrus.

“Papyrus, you never stopped believing that I could be a good person, not even for a second. And I know I failed you then, but I want to prove you right now.”

“OF COURSE I DIDN’T! YOU ARE MY FRIEND, FRISK. AND ONCE WE GET YOUR SOUL BACK AND GET TO THE SURFACE, WE WILL BOTH DO INCREDIBLE THINGS TOGETHER!” He bent down and gave the human a big hug, and then they turned to Alphys.

“Alphys, you evacuated all of Hotland. You were so brave and saved so many lives. You have more courage inside of you than you think.” Frisk smiled at her, and she smiled back. “Sans, you tried to stop me even when you thought it was pointless. And in the end, you really did make a difference. Once upon a timeline, you asked me what you could possibly do to change the mind of a being like me - but you already had. We’re only here now because of the things you said to me. So thank you for trying to put me on the straight and narrow. I’ll try to stay on it from now on.”

Sans actually blushed a little, blue magic dusting his cheekbones, and Frisk looked extremely pleased with themself. Well, as much as a soulless person could look pleased. “sure thing, kiddo. you’re not too bad yourself.” He rubbed the back of his neck sheepishly, and Frisk somehow managed what could only be described as a devilish grin.

“And last but not least, Undyne,” they continued, turning to her. “You really are the most incredible hero anywhere on earth. You were so determined to save the world, that you undid your own death - everyone looks up to you. Even I found myself cheering for you during our battle. You inspire me, so thank you for that.”

Undyne puffed her chest out a little at the praise. “Well, I mean, of course I did! I’m just that awesome!” She grabbed Frisk and gave them a noogie. “You can be pretty heroic when you want to, too, punk. I think we’re gonna make a pretty good team against that Chara freak when it comes down to it.”

Frisk smiled, and for a brief moment, Sans almost thought it looked genuine. “Actually, Undyne, there was something I wanted to discuss with you in private. Would you walk with me on my way home?” Frisk looked up at her after they escaped her grip.

“Sure thing, punk. See you guys tomorrow.” Undyne and Frisk began walking back towards the Ruins.

When they were out of earshot, Frisk spoke up again. “This next bit won’t be quite as positive, unfortunately. But it’s important that you hear it.”

“Lay it on me, Frisk.”

“I was talking with Gaster about the timelines you guys are entering. One of them is dangerously close to where Chara is - and that’s where you’re going.”

“I can handle a little danger, punk.”

“I’m well aware. But I need you to understand something - if it comes down to it, you’re the only one that can stall them - not Asgore, not Sans, not me. You’re the only one that can survive more than one hit from Chara’s LV.”

“Huh? How?”

“You have determination, Undyne. Just like me.”

“Wait, you mean… I can time travel too?” Undyne looked excited by the prospect.

“I don’t think it quite works that way. But I do know this - you used your determination to overcome death. The only way I was ever able to beat you - in any timeline - was because your own determination made you melt. That’s how powerful you are, Undyne. In the end, you might be our last hope.”

Undyne nodded gravely. “I get it. I won’t let you guys down, Frisk - I’ve got all my friends behind me. That little freak’s as good as dead.”

* * *

“so everything’s ready, huh?” Sans asked Gaster. They were back in the Grey Room, in front of the void again. It wasn’t sucking everything in this time - more like a window than a hole.

“YES. ONCE EVERYONE IS RESTED, WILL WE COMMENCE THE PLAN.”

Sans nodded. “then, uh, this seems like a pretty good time to talk, right?”

Gaster sighed and turned to him. “I HAVE BEEN ATTEMPTING TO DECIDE WHAT TO SAY ON THE MATTER, AND I BELIEVE I REACHED HAVE A CONCLUSION.” 

“alright, let’s hear it. ‘cause i really don’t know why you won’t tell me if you’re my dad, or my brother, or my uncle, or if i’m just crazy and not related to you at all.”

“AND I AM STILL NOT GOING TO, FOR GOOD REASON.” Sans was about to argue, but Gaster cut him off. “AFTER THIS ENDEAVOR IS COMPLETE, YOU WILL FORGET ABOUT ME AGAIN. THERE IS NO REASON TO EXTEND YOUR SENSE OF LOSS BY REINTRODUCING OLD MEMORIES.”

“what are you talking about? you’re coming to the surface with the rest of us.”

“NO. I TECHNICALLY STILL DO NOT EXIST. TOOK IT ME EXCESSIVE AMOUNTS OF STORED POWER TO MANIFEST A PHYSICAL FORM FOR THIS VENTURE. ONCE THIS TASK IS COMPLETE, I WILL RETURN THE TO VOID TO BE FORGOTTEN. THE PROCESS WILL TAKE TIME, BUT EVENTUALLY NO KNOWLEDGE ME OF WILL EXIST.”

“no, no, no. you’re here now, we can figure out a way to stabilize you and--”

“NO.” Gaster said firmly. “MY OWN HUBRIS HAS PLACED ME IN THIS POSITION, AND ACCEPT I THE CONSEQUENCES. I WILL NOT, HOWEVER, CONTINUE TO ALLOW THAT HUBRIS TO AFFECT THOSE I LEFT BEHIND. YOU HAVE MUCH SPENT OF YOUR LIFE ATTEMPTING TO FIX MY MISTAKES, AND I AM GRATEFUL. NOW, IT IS TIME FOR YOU TO MOVE ON.”

“gaster, i’m not just going to abandon you now that we’ve got so close,” Sans said, pleading.

“YOU ALREADY HAVE EVERYTHING YOU NEED,” Gaster said, placing an ethereal hand on Sans’ shoulder. Images of Papyrus, Frisk, Toriel, and everyone else flashed through his mind. “THE FUTURE IS IN YOUR HANDS NOW, TO DO WHATEVER WISH YOU WITH IT. LEAVE THE PAST BEHIND.”

Sans looked on the verge of tears. “you’re not gonna change your mind, are you?”

“NO. I NOT AM.”

Sans nodded and left the room in silence.


	8. Perseverance

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Alphys retrieves the soul of Perseverance.

“I HAVE LIBERTY THE TAKEN OF PREPARING BRIEFING PACKETS FOR EACH ASSIGNMENT,” Gaster said. His English was difficult to understand sometimes, but everyone tried their best to figure out what he was saying. “EACH INCLUDES THE APPROXIMATE TIME AND LOCATION OF THE SUBJECT’S DEATH. I INSERT WILL YOU EXACTLY TWO HOURS BEFORE THE TIME OF DEATH - YOU MUST RETRIEVE THE SUBJECT BEFORE THIS DEADLINE AND RETURN TO THE GREY ROOM AS POSSIBLE AS QUICKLY.” An entourage of floating hands delivered the pamphlets, and Gaster stepped aside to allow everyone into the room.

Frisk waved as they all filed in, and Undyne turned to them. “Alright, punk - I’m leaving the safety of the Underground to you. And my guards, of course. Don’t let anything happen while we’re away, got it?”

Frisk gave her a dry smile. “Aye aye, Captain.” Undyne ruffled their hair and stepped into the room.

The door closed and the confines of the room fell away, leaving the group in an endless black void. The only thing in sight was a flat, grey walkway that Gaster began to traverse.

After what seemed like an eternity of walking, Gaster paused. A door materialized out of nowhere. “DOCTOR ALPHYS - I BELIEVE THIS IS YOUR STOP.” Alphys nodded nervously and approached the door.

“Go get ‘em, Alphy!” Undyne gave her a big smile, and Alphys walked through.

The Royal Scientist found herself back in Waterfall, feet wet from the damp ground. She cracked open the pamphlet and looked inside. Luckily, it seemed her assignment was easy - the human would be approaching her location already, making their way through Snowdin as Asgore approached from the capitol. This particular human had apparently alerted the Royal Guard accidentally by asking questions all over town, and Asgore had been notified of his presence. This was the third soul that had fallen.

Alphys took a deep breath and began walking towards Snowdin, deciding it would probably be best to intercept the human and get them to the door as quickly as possible, so she could avoid Asgore altogether.

As she was walking, all sorts of questions began to run through her head. How would she convince the human to come with her? What if he was hostile? She was useless in a fight, at least without her gadgets. Surely Gaster would have sent Undyne or Asgore after the more dangerous ones. It would only make sense.

There was also the possibility of her missing the human entirely and reaching him too late, or him refusing to go with her, or him getting injured, or both of them getting arrested - there were so many variables outside of her control. Alphys had her talents, but improvising on the fly was not one of them. Frisk would have been a better choice for the last slot (and she was certain she was the last slot), but they had to stay in their own timeline to keep Flowey in check. Of course, Flowey wouldn’t be a problem if she hadn’t made the soulless killing machine in the first place. Just how much of this mess was her fault?

Alphys shook the intrusive thoughts from her mind and tried to focus. Her friends needed her to do this. She needed to be confident in herself. The air was getting colder, so she must be getting close to Snowdin. The human had to be closeby, right?

As if on cue, the splish-splash of sneakers on puddles reached Alphys’ ears, and the scientist found herself face-to-face with a human. He was well-dressed, though his shoes and the bottom of his khaki pants were damp with mud. He had a blue sweater-vest and thick, round glasses with tape around the middle and a scratched-up right lens. Longish light brown hair hung almost to his eyes, and the outfit was completed by a little red bow tie. He had a pencil stuck behind one ear and a worn purple notebook under his arm.

Aww. This little guy was adorable.

The little boy adjusted his glasses as he looked at her; he was actually slightly shorter than her. He extended his hand in greeting. “Hello. My name is Landon Bartholomew Montgomery. Pleased to make your acquaintance.”

Alphys stuttered for a few moments before gingerly grabbing his hand. He had a firm grip; or maybe Alphys just had a really weak one. “I-It’s, um, n-nice to meet you, Landon. M-My name is Doctor A-Alphys.”

Landon’s eyes widened beneath his glasses. “Doctor? May I ask what of?” He looked very interested all of a sudden.

Alphys blushed a little at the attention. “M-Magical Engineering,” she said. “I’ve, uh, b-been looking for you, Landon. I-It’s really important that I speak w-with you.”

Landon shifted his notebook in front of himself protectively. “Are you perhaps an agent of King Asgore?”

“O-Oh, n-no! Uh, this isn’t a-about you being a human. W-Well, it sort of is, b-but, uh, not in the way y-you’re thinking.”

The human didn’t lower his notebook, but he seemed placated by the answer. “Very well. Perhaps you could answer a few of my questions in return for answering yours?” He pulled the pencil out from behind his ear.

“U-Uh, sure, but I d-don’t really need, um, answers from you. I-I need you to come with me.”

“...Why? And to where?” He definitely seemed suspicious now, but there wasn’t really any other way to say this.

“I-I can explain l-later. You a-aren’t safe right now.”

He frowned. “Why not?”

“K-Ki… uh, A-Asgore is on his way h-here now. W-We need to get you somewhere s-safe before he finds you.”

“Why are you so interested in my safety? Don’t you want my soul to break the barrier?”

Alphys ran a hand over her scales, starting to get flustered. “That’s, u-uh… complicated. I-I think there’s a way you c-can help us break the barrier w-without, um, k-killing you? I-It’s a really long story, and I don’t have t-time to tell it now.”

Landon peered into her eyes through his glasses, and Alphys started to sweat. She didn’t handle being stared at very well. Eventually, he gave a small nod. “Very well. I’ll follow your lead.”

Alphys sighed in relief and started leading the human back towards the grey door. “G-Good. Thanks f-for, um, trusting me. O-Once we get you s-somewhere safe I’ll be happy to… uh…” She paused and gestured for Landon to be quiet as she listened. She heard the sound of metal armor clanking through the caverns. “O-Oh no. W-We need to hide!” Alphys grabbed his hand and veered off course, trying to avoid the main road.

“Is that the king?” Landon asked, resisting her. “Shouldn’t we tell him about your plan? If there’s an alternative, I’m sure we could convince him to--”

“N-No, he w-won’t listen. Trust me.”

“I don’t understand. Everyone I’ve talked to believes that Asgore is a kind and reasonable man. Why do you--”

“Shhh!” Alphys put her hand over his mouth. “It’s not A-Asgore. His guards have orders t-to kill you on sight, and they won’t listen. Y-You’ll never get t-to Asgore.”

Landon looked skeptical, but he let Alphys drag him along anyway. She turned towards the pier - the same one Undyne had (or would eventually, in this timeline) knock Frisk off of.  
The clanking suddenly grew louder as a pair of Royal Guards rounded the corner; Alphys recognized them as some of the retired members that had moved to New Home in her own time. They immediately paused and shouted at them. “You there! Stop in the name of King Asgore!”

“Run!” Alphys and Landon both began sprinting down the walkway, and the guards began to pursue.

Unfortunately, the one training session Alphys had with Papyrus hadn’t done much to improve her stamina. She just wasn’t built for exercise, let alone a full-out sprint for her life. Her stubby legs didn’t help either, and Landon was forced to slow down for her.

“Doctor, do you have any idea where we’re going? They’re catching up quickly!” Landon grabbed her arm, trying to get her to move faster. It didn’t help.

Alphys didn’t bother turning around to look. She might not be fast, but she did have an excellent memory - she knew this place from when she’d watched Frisk traverse it. Luckily for her, the area was dark and one couldn’t see more than a few yards in any direction - but her mental map extended far beyond that range.

She turned left, then right, and then looped back around; the guards found themselves running down dead ends and in circles. It wasn’t enough to lose them entirely, but it did buy the pair of runaways some time.

Alphys was gasping for breath by the time they reached the end of the boardwalk. “This is a dead end,” Landon pointed out, looking around frantically for an exit. The guards were right on their tail.

“No, it’s not,” Alphys said, doing something she hoped she wouldn’t come to regret. With a shove, Landon and Alphys toppled over the ledge and the Royal Guards were left without a quarry.

* * *

Alphys woke up before the human; the fall had halved her meager HP, and she was pretty certain that she had sprained her knee. She checked the human as she came to, hoping that the fall hadn’t killed him. Frisk survived this fall, but that could’ve just been luck. Alphys really wasn’t great at improvising.

Landon - ATK 2 DEF 6

LV 1

HP 196/200

His glasses are broken.

Alphys blinked and filed his massive HP away as something to ask about later. As the human rose to his knees, Alphys noticed that his glasses were indeed broken, lying in the bed of flowers the two had landed on. The tape holding them together had failed, leaving them in two separate pieces, and the left lens had completely shattered. It was a miracle that Landon hadn’t gouged one of his eyes out - there were scratches from the glass on his cheek.

“I-I’m s-so, so s-sorry about that,” Alphys said, limping over to him. “I-I did know what I w-was doing, though. The uh, f-fall was um… s-survivable.” Landon pawed at the ground for his glasses, blinking as he brought them to his face. “O-Oh, I can, uh, f-fix those.” Alphys adjusted her own glasses on her face, the magical material completely unscathed by the fall.

Landon reluctantly handed over the glasses and glared at her. She took them and immediately began to flood the material with her magic; gold sparks of electricity crackled around the glass as the lens reformed. Soon enough, and the glasses were better than new, perfectly polished.

Landon snatched them back and put them on his face, blinking in surprise as his vision refocused. “Thank you,” he said.

“I-It’s n-no problem,” Alphys chuckled nervously. “A-Anyway, uh, if you’ll just f-follow me--”

“I don’t think so,” Landon said, dusting himself off. “Not until you explain exactly what your plans are. I’m afraid my faith in you has been somewhat shaken.”

Alphys stuttered a bit, the comment stinging her a little. It really helped when her friends were around to back her up and protect her fragile self-esteem. “U-Um. R-Right. S-So, uh… where to begin...”

Alphys came up with a dozen different ways to explain the situation, and her mouth started moving without her permission, jumbling everything together in a mess of words. “So, you see, I’m not actually from this timeline, I’m from a future timeline where six human souls have already been collected and when the seventh human named Frisk fell they became friends with everyone and they kinda sold their soul to this demon-child-person that’s destroying past timelines in order to undo killing everyone which they kinda did in our best interests but it was still wrong, but anyway we think with the help of some humans we could stop them and destroy the barrier at the same time and if we do that we can--”

“You need to slow down,” Landon said. “It’s difficult to understand you when you ramble.”

Alphys started stuttering uncontrollably, thrown off guard by the child’s bluntness. She knew she wasn’t a great communicator, but people usually respected her enough to listen through her impediments - even if they had to ask her to repeat herself. Landon just sighed and held up a hand to stop her floundering. “Nevermind. I think I get the gist of it - I assume this Frisk will be able to provide more detail?”

Alphys began blushing, completely embarrassed. “U-Um… yeah.”

Landon pushed his glasses up on his face. “I assume you have a way to return to your timeline? Will there be a way for me to return to my time once the barrier is broken?”

“U-Uh, yes. O-On both.”

“Let’s go then. We’ve spent enough time here.”

Alphys just nodded and felt herself go numb as she limped towards the exit of the garbage dump. Landon rolled his eyes and put an arm under her shoulder supporting her as they walked away.

* * *

The pair got more than a few odd glances as they traversed Waterfall, but Asgore and the Royal Guard had apparently moved on to Snowdin and they reached the grey door without incident. Landon helped Alphys limp inside, and with a nauseating shift of dimensions, Gaster and the void appeared.

“WORK EXCELLENT, DOCTOR ALPHYS. YOU ARE THE FIRST TO RETURN FROM ASSIGNMENT YOUR.”

“I believe you meant ‘excellent work’ and ‘your assignment.’ I realize English is probably not your first language, but your grammar does leave something to be desired,” Landon said, holding his hands behind his back. “My name is Landon Bartholomew Montgomery, by the way. Pleased to make your acquaintance.”

Gaster narrowed his eyes and frowned. “DOCTOR W.D. GASTER,” he replied, tone cold, “AND THE IS PLEASURE MUTUAL. FOR INFORMATION YOUR, ENGLISH IS MY FIRST LANGUAGE, AND YOUR KNOW-IT-ALL ATTITUDE LEAVES ALSO MUCH TO BE DESIRED.”

Landon went a little red in the face as he tried to respond, and Gaster turned to Alphys. “FRISK IS CURRENTLY MONITORING THE MISSIONS OTHER, BUT I AM AFRAID THEY LACK THE TECHNICAL REQUIRED EXPERTISE TO OPERATE THE MACHINERY. I TRUST YOU WILL ABLE BE TO TAKE OVER FOR THEM?”

“S-Sure thing, D-Doctor Gaster,” she smiled. He nodded and smiled back before beginning to walk towards the path.

Landon finally recovered from being scolded. “May I ask what you are a doctor of, Doctor Gaster?” He seemed rather offended.

“QUANTUM MECHANICS, SOUL ANALYSIS, DIMENSIONAL PHYSICS, ASTROPHYSICS, AND PSYCHOLOGY.”

“I… see. What is this place, Doctor Gaster?”

“TO UNDERSTAND REQUIRE WOULD AN ADVANCED UNDERSTANDING OF QUANTUM MECHANICS AND TEMPORAL-DIMENSIONAL THEORY. I WILL NOT ATTEMPT TO EITHER EXPLAIN TO YOU.”

Gaster continued to deflect Landon’s questions, much to the human’s chagrin. Eventually, the trip ended, and Frisk appeared to greet them at the doorway. Landon stepped forward immediately.

“Hello. My name is Landon Bartholomew Montgomery. Pleased to make your acquaintance. You are Frisk, I presume?” He extended his hand. Frisk tilted their head at him curiously, but shook it anyway. “We have much to discuss. I would like to get a better grasp on the situation, if you wouldn’t mind.”

Frisk nodded and led him away, leaving Alphys alone with Gaster.  
“THE CHILD IS INSUFFERABLE IN ALL ITERATIONS. NOT DO ALLOW HIM TO RATTLE YOU.”

Alphys started blushing, and Gaster placed a hand on her shoulder. The sensation felt familiar somehow. “Uh… th-thanks. S-So, I d-did want to ask you a-about something. L-Landon only has 1 LV, b-but his HP stat is massive. I know y-you, uh, studied soul theory a lot, so I was wondering if you knew why?”

Gaster nodded. “THINK BACK TO YOUR EXTRACTION OF DETERMINATION. WORK MASTERFUL, BY THE WAY - I AM VERY GLAD YOU CONTINUED THAT PARTICULAR PROJECT. DETERMINATION IS ONE OF SEVERAL THAT TRAITS CAN BE EXTRACTED FROM SOULS. WHILE MONSTERS POSSESS A COMBINATION OF TRAITS, HUMAN SOULS ARE MOSTLY COMPOSED OF A ONE SINGLE. HIS TRAIT IS PERSEVERANCE, WHICH HAS THE BENEFICIAL EFFECT OF GREATLY ENHANCING HIS HP.”

“O-Oh, that makes sense. Thank you.”

“OF DOCTOR, COURSE. NOW, YOU SHOULD GO TO THE MONITORS IN THE LAB. I AM AFRAID I NO LONGER HAVE ENOUGH PHYSICAL FORM TO INTERACT WITH THE MACHINES.”


	9. Kindness

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Asgore travels to Hotland and confronts one of the Royal Guards.

Asgore opened the pamphlet Gaster had given him delicately, laying it out in the palm of one of his giant furry hands. He recognized the human described inside; he knew all of them by face, if not personally. He’d given all of them a private funeral.

This one’s name was Andy - he seemed like the oldest of the humans that had fallen. His soul was green, filled with kindness, and he’d been intercepted by part of the Royal Guard in Hotland. He was the first soul to fall - and Asgore remembered it well. He didn’t leave his castle for a week afterward; partly because of the crushing guilt, partly because this particular human had been very well liked by many monsters and they started to question his judgement in declaring war. He’d been too conflicted already to deal with his people changing their minds - they were the ones he’d done such terrible things for, after all.

Now, he might have a chance to right his wrongs and give this child the ending he deserved.

Asgore wasn’t particularly fond of Hotland; fur and extreme heat tended not to mesh well. That wasn’t to say he didn’t love walking around and talking to all of its residents; especially the schoolchildren that passed through the area to get to the school in New Home. They were all so lovely.

Unfortunately, time was of the essence, and he resisted the urge to stop and chat as much as he possibly could. The trip through Waterfall had taken up a lot of his precious time, and he didn’t know how far into Hotland the human had gotten. He might be exploring the region’s different floors at that very moment, and playing hide-and-seek wasn’t going to help anyone. Asgore decided to wait for him at the location of his death, and hope he could get Andy out before any trouble arose.

It was a long rock bridge, and Asgore had to admit that the atmosphere was eerie. Heat rippled through the air, distorting everything in the distance and making the walkway seem far longer than it really was. His deadline was approaching, and there was still no sign of the human or the monster that had killed him.

Just as Asgore was about to start pacing nervously, he caught a glimmer of a form approaching. He made his way towards it quickly - it was indeed the human. The boy was heavy-set and had an apron with a drawing of a radish tied around his belly. He was clutching a frying pan, and his brown hair was drenched with sweat. He had sweatpants on, which he’d rolled up past his knees, and his long sleeves had been pushed up past his elbows. He waved a hand in greeting as he saw Asgore.

“Hello, sir,” He said. The boy was breathing heavily. “Does this road go towards New Home?” He put on a friendly smile, but it faltered when he looked up at Asgore’s crown.

Asgore smiled back anyway. “It is, but perhaps I could convince you to travel with me to Waterfall instead? This climate doesn’t seem to be favorable for either of us.”

“U-Um…” Andy swallowed a lump in his throat. “A-Are you… King Asgore?”

Asgore nodded. “I am.”

“I… I don’t want any trouble. And I won’t hurt anyone, I swear.” He clutched his frying pan close to his chest.

“I believe you,” Asgore said, raising his hands to soothe the boy. “I do not want a confrontation either. In fact, my friends and I could use your assistance in a matter of grave importance - and in return, we will try our best to get you home.”

Andy released the breath he had been holding. “R-Really? That would be amazing, I… I don’t know what to say.”

“Then perhaps we should get moving,” Asgore said. “Time is of the essence.”

Andy nodded with some amount of excitement. “My name is Andy, by the way. It’s nice to meet you, Your Majesty. Your people have a lot of great things to say about you.”

Asgore blushed underneath his fur. “Just call me Asgore. And it is nice to meet you too, Andy.”

The moment was interrupted by the clanking of metal armor as someone ran towards them from behind. Asgore turned around - it was a Royal Guard. The king recognized him; he had retired and passed away several years ago in his own time. His lack of aging was far more a curse than a blessing; without a child, he would watch all his friends grow old and die one by one. In fact, Toriel and Gerson were the only two people alive from his childhood. The others had all been lost to time.

“Sire, do you need--” The guard skidded to a halt a few feet from them, floppy rabbit ears coming to rest over the eye slit in his helmet. He brushed them out of the way. “What’s going on here?”

“Stand down,” Asgore said, pushing Andy behind himself. “I have the matter under control.”

The guard looked from Asgore to Andy and back again. “That’s… that’s a human. Sire, we need its soul to open the barrier. Or have you forgotten that?”

“I am aware,” Asgore said, defaulting to his regal mannerisms. “But you are not to harm this child. I am taking him to Waterfall personally. Also, it is highly disrespectful to refer to someone as an ‘it.’ This human is male. Unless I am mistaken?” Andy shook his head and looked at the guard fearfully.

“I.. no. Are you  _ seriously _ backing out now? After that whole speech about hope and justice and all that crap?” His gauntlet clenched around his sword.

“There is more to it than that,” Asgore said slowly, attempting to be commanding. He knew he wasn’t extremely intimidating (as far as other monsters were concerned), but he did demand respect. “I will handle this matter. Your assistance is not required.”

The guard raised his sword. “I don’t think so, you  _ traitor _ . How  _ dare _ you just chicken out the first time a human falls down here? I promised my son he’d see the surface someday, and I’m not letting your poor little bleeding heart get in the way of that.” He set himself into a battle stance.

“I am your  _ King _ . You will do as I say, and stand down.” Asgore began to ready his magic.

“Not gonna happen.” The guard stuck out with his blade, and Asgore’s trident appeared to block it.

Andy stepped out from behind Asgore, looking a little panicked. “Wait, wait, please! There’s no need for violence!” The guard responded by thrusting his sword at him, and Asgore shoved Andy out of the way. The maneuver earned him a wide gash on the side.

Mildly horrified, Andy reached his fingertips forward. The guard’s feet locked in place as he was pinned with green magic. “I don’t want to hurt anyone. Please, just stop!”

“Just go!” Asgore said, pushing him away from the battle. The guard couldn’t follow as the two fled, frozen by the human’s attack.

“We can’t outrun him!” Andy said as his magic lost effect. The guard sprinted forward, gaining incredibly quickly. A ringing noise pierced the air.

Asgore pulled out his phone. “Hello?”

Andy blinked at him. “Is now really the time?”

“A-Asgore! D-Don’t worry, I’ll r-route you to one of the elevators s-so you c-can lose him,” Alphys called through the device.

“Alphys! It is good to hear your voice, my friend. How is this possible?”

“Oh, I-I’m just using an undertone m-modulator to alter the dimensional frequency of the… uh, n-nevermind. T-Take a left here!”

Asgore grabbed Andy’s arm and swung left, unleashing a torrent of flames behind himself to trip up his pursuer. It bought them a little time. The elevator was in sight, and Asgore shoved the human towards it. “Go to the bottom floor and head towards Waterfall. I will meet you there.”

“I don’t want to to leave--”

“Do not argue! Go, now!” Andy nodded hesitantly and ran to the elevator, and Asgore turned around to face his pursuer. “Do not make me harm you,” he warned.

The guard ignored him and slashed out with his blade, shouting furiously and connecting with Asgore’s trident as he blocked. Asgore forced the blunt side of his weapon up to hit the side of the guard’s helmet, making it ring like a bell. He staggered backward, and Asgore knocked him to the ground with the butt of the trident before sending the guard’s sword spinning away with the forked end. The glowing red weapon came to rest at the guard’s throat.

“Stand. Down.”

Panting heavily, the guard put his hands up, and Asgore began walking towards the elevator. “You’re a coward. And a traitor,” the guard spat at him. Asgore blocked it out of his mind as the elevator door closed.

Andy was waiting for him, relieved. “Thank you. For back there,” he said, and Asgore nodded to him. “You’re, uh… you’re hurt,” Andy told him, pointing to his side. It was  dripping red through his armor.

“I will be alright. We must get to Waterfall before we meet anymore trouble.”

“Just let me help real quick,” Andy said, brushing Asgore’s cloak aside. Reluctantly, the king lifted his arm up so the human could get a better look. Andy took a deep breath, and his hands began to glow green. The pain in Asgore’s side ebbed away.

“You are a healer,” Asgore observed as Andy pulled his hands away. “That is a rare gift among humans. You should be proud.”

Andy started blushing. “O-Oh… thanks. We should, uh, get going.” Asgore nodded and pulled out his phone, struggling to type out a text with his giant fingers.  _ Thank you, Doctor Alphys. _


	10. Integrity

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Papyrus makes a new friend, meets Mettaton, and tells a bedtime story.

Papyrus stepped out of the grey door and inhaled deeply, striking a pose with his hands on his hips. Sure, there was no one around to see, but he just felt so… heroic. He was going to rescue a human from across time and space (and in the process make a new friend, of course),  _ and  _ help get all of his friends to the surface, where they would all be happy. That was most certainly heroic! And the best part was, with all of his many talents, this would probably be easy.

According to the pamphlet he had been given, the human he had been assigned - named Olivia - was very close to his current location. In fact, she would be passing this very spot; Asgore would meet her a little bit past here. All he had to do was wait for her to come and use his incredible charms to win her over; hopefully without making her fall madly in love with him, because one friend hopelessly pining after him was more than enough.

So, Papyrus began to patrol the perimeter, making sure the area was safe for the human. A few monsters walked past him and gave him odd glances, but Papyrus was used to that. Besides, none of these monsters had met him before, because Papyrus hadn’t been born at the time this human had fallen - she was the second soul.

And, just like that, the human arrived in her pink ballerina outfit. Her skin was very dark and her thick, curly black hair was tied into a bun behind her head. Her tutu seemed suspiciously familiar; Papyrus remembered Frisk wearing something very similar once. In fact, the more he looked at it, it looked like the exact same tutu; Frisk’s just looked like it had been weathered. Then Papyrus realized why; Frisk said they had found the tutu lying around Waterfall, and this human had died a long time ago. The realization made him… sad. The outfit looked like it belonged on Olivia.

_ All the more reason to get her somewhere safe _ , he thought. He skipped up to the girl and waved enthusiastically. “HELLO, HUMAN! I AM THE GREAT PAPYRUS! I HAVE BEEN WAITING FOR YOU!”

Olivia smiled nervously and gave him a little curtsy. “Um… hi, Papyrus. My name’s Olivia. You’ve… you’ve been waiting for me?”

Papyrus realized that might have sounded slightly creepy. “AH, YES! I HAVE COME FROM THE FUTURE, AND MY FRIENDS AND I ARE IN DESPERATE NEED OF YOUR HELP! YOU SEE, THERE IS AN EVIL DEAD CHILD-PERSON TRYING TO DESTROY US ALL, AND WE NEED HUMAN ALLIES TO STOP THEM, AND WE ALSO NEED HUMAN ALLIES TO HELP STOP A GROUP OF MEAN HUMANS THAT WON’T LET US GET TO THE SURFACE. SO, CAN WE COUNT ON YOUR HELP?” Olivia blinked, a little taken aback by the barrage of words. It only made sense, Papyrus supposed - this was a lot of responsibility to take on.

“Wait, wait - future? Dead… child… I don’t understand. You want me to come to the future and… what?”

The human was a child, so Papyrus supposed he needed to be a bit clearer in his explanation. “OKAY, SO… I AM FROM THE FUTURE. A FUTURE WHERE YOU WERE KILLED BY ASGORE FOR YOUR SOUL.”

“What?!”

Perhaps that was a bit insensitive. “WELL, YES, BUT I AM HERE TO PREVENT THAT! I WILL BRING YOU TO THE FUTURE, WHERE THE KING NO LONGER WANTS TO KILL YOU, AND YOU CAN HELP US STOP A BUNCH OF BAD HUMANS THAT ARE EITHER TRYING TO ERASE US ALL FROM EXISTENCE OR KEEP US TRAPPED UNDERGROUND FOREVER. AND YOU CAN MAKE MANY NEW FRIENDS!”

Olivia looked at the ground. “I… I just want to go home. I miss my mom. I miss my big sister.”

“WE CAN GET YOU HOME AFTER YOU HELP US, I AM CERTAIN! A HAPPY ENDING FOR EVERYONE!”

She looked up. “Really?”

“OF COURSE! WHAT KIND OF SKELETON WOULD I BE IF I DIDN’T HELP A FRIEND IN NEED?”

Olivia took a deep breath and nodded her head. “Okay. How can I help?”

Pleased with himself, Papyrus stepped back and opened the grey door. “RIGHT THIS WAY, HUMAN!”

* * *

 

Something smelled delicious, Papyrus noted as he brought Olivia to the lab in Hotland. Everyone had agreed to keep the humans here for the time being. Alphys sat in front of her large monitor, which was split into several different screens; Papyrus could see Toriel, Undyne, and Sans on some of them. Another human, wearing glasses, stood behind her taking notes in his notebook.

“Great j-job, Papyrus! W-Welcome back,” Alphys waved to him. She looked slightly uncomfortable; Papyrus felt like the other human might be crowding her.

“WHY, THANK YOU DOCTOR ALPHYS! THIS IS OLIVIA. SHE WILL BE HELPING US GET TO THE SURFACE!”

“U-Um, i-it’s nice to m-meet you,” Alphys answered, turning back to her screen. The human behind her beckoned to Olivia.

“Come with me. I’ll get you up to speed on things,” he said. Olivia seemed relieved to see another human and followed him.

“I’ll see you later, Papyrus!” she said as she left.

“YES! GOODBYE, OLIVIA!” Papyrus turned to Alphys. “DOCTOR ALPHYS, WHAT IS THAT DELICIOUS SMELL?”

“Hmm? O-Oh, uh, Andy’s cooking d-dinner for everyone upstairs w-with Asgore. H-He’s, uh, another h-human.”

“OH, WONDERFUL! I SHALL GO ASSIST HIM!”

“U-U-Uh, hold on! U-Um, maybe instead o-of doing that you c-could, u-um… uh…” Alphys looked around the room desperately, “g-get the b-beds downstairs r-ready for our g-guests! They n-need somewhere to sleep, r-right?”

“OF COURSE! I WILL RETURN SHORTLY!” Papyrus jogged off to the elevator.

“A-Andy, you m-might want to hurry up,” Alphys called after he was out of earshot.

* * *

 

Andy was already finished with the food by the time Papyrus returned, unfortunately, so he didn’t get the chance to help. Next time, he supposed. More importantly, Mettaton was coming for a visit - and with his new body complete, he was more fabulous than ever. Papyrus couldn’t believe he was actually going to get the chance to meet  _ Mettaton. _

“Helloooooo, beauties!~” The doors slid open to reveal the glamourous robot strutting into the lab with an entourage of cameramen. “Citizens of the Underground, King Asgore has invited me here today to learn about what is going on - and share it all with you! Many of you know Frisk, the human who recently fell into our community. Let’s go speak with the human and King Asgore now.”

Mettaton ascended the escalator to the top floor of the lab, where Frisk and Asgore were waiting. Papyrus followed him eagerly. “King Asgore! A pleasure as always. Please, explain to my viewers what will be done with Frisk here.” He passed the mic to Asgore, who tapped it gently to make sure it was on.

“Well, everyone, there is a lot to explain. I will not be taking Frisk’s soul - they have agreed to help us find an alternate method of breaking the barrier and to help us get acquainted with the humans on the surface afterward. My w-- I mean. Um. The former queen, Toriel, has also returned to help us with this endeavor.”

“The queen has returned?! My, what a fabulous development! I must speak with her!”

“Unfortunately, Toriel is currently out on a mission to help us break the barrier,” Asgore answered. “We are recruiting other humans to help us from the past. I don’t claim to understand the mechanics of the process, but we have been successful so far.”

“Oh? Do tell!”

“We currently have enlisted the aid of three other humans in addition to Frisk. In fact, Papyrus here was responsible for retrieving one of them.”

Mettaton turned around and looked at Papyrus, who practically squealed in excitement. Olivia had also come up to the second floor and was standing behind the skeleton.

“Incredible! Papyrus, darling, get over here!” Mettaton beckoned him over.

“IT IS AN HONOR TO MEET YOU, METTATON! I’M SUCH A BIG FAN!” Papyrus walked forward and shook his hand vigorously.

“Oh, stop it, darling!” Mettaton giggled. “By which I mean continue. Please.”

“I’VE SEEN EVERY ONE OF YOUR SHOWS, AND I HAVE ALL OF YOUR ACTION FIGURES! I EVEN WENT TO SEE YOU LIVE AT ONE OF YOUR CONCERTS!”

“My my, how dedicated you are! I’m impressed! Let’s all give Papyrus a big hand, folks!” One of the cameramen pushed a button and some pre-recorded applause played. “Now, is that precious little thing behind you the human you retrieved? How did you manage to do it?”

Olivia gave a short wave from behind Papyrus, and he beamed proudly. “WELL, IT WAS QUITE EASY! I USED MY OVERWHELMING CHARMS TO CONVINCE HER TO JOIN OUR CAUSE! I CAN BE VERY PERSUASIVE.”

“Well, thank you so much for your service, darling. Now, the sweetie behind you - what’s your name?”

“Olivia,” she said.

“What a beautiful name! I see you are wearing a ballerina outfit. Do you like to dance?” Olivia nodded. “How absolutely fabulous! Come here, darling, you must dance with me!’ He grabbed her hand and pointed to one of the cameramen. “Something graceful, if you please.”

A mellow melody began to play, and the two began to waltz around the room. Olivia was actually quite skilled for someone her age - and Mettaton slowed down to accommodate her. He lifted her up on one hand and twirled her around in the air, and by the time the song was done, they were both giggling happily.

“You are utterly fabulous, darling. We must dance again sometime.” Olivia nodded and smiled at the camera. “Well, that’s all for now, everyone. I’ll keep you updated on the state of things as the king’s new plan progresses - until next time, this has been Mettaton for MTT News, signing off.”

Mettaton sighed and brushed a hand through his hair. “A pleasure to meet you both,” he smiled, looking at Olivia and Papyrus. “Doctor Alphys, you will keep me posted, won’t you?” He called down the stairs.

“S-Sure thing, Mettaton!”

“Excellent. Well, I’ll take my leave, then. Goodbye, beauties!” Mettaton strutted out of the building with his cameramen, and Asgore turned to Papyrus.

“Papyrus, could you put the children to bed? It appears the others may not arrive for some time yet,” the king asked. 

“ABSOLUTELY! COME WITH ME, OLIVIA!” Papyrus retrieved Andy and the other human - he said his name was Landon - and stepped into the elevator. Luckily, Papyrus had cleaned up the halls a little so that the downstairs bedroom wasn’t so dingy, and he’d put fresh sheets on all the beds. He was very efficient at cleaning. The room was a little bare, but at least it wasn’t as creepy.

The humans settled into their beds, but Papyrus felt like something was still missing. “AH, I KNOW! WOULD ANYONE LIKE A BEDTIME STORY?”

Andy looked slightly amused and Landon just stared at him blankly, but Olivia nodded her head. “Yes, please.”

Papyrus sat down on one of the empty beds, cleared his throat, and began to recite ‘Peekaboo with Fluffy Bunny’ from memory - Sans read it almost every night, so he knew it by heart.

By the time he was finished, all four people in the room were snoring softly.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I wanted to include a little Mettaton somewhere in this story, so I thought this would be a good opportunity to give everyone a little dose of fabulous robot as well as check in on things back in the current timeline.


	11. Patience

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Toriel goes to rescue one of her lost children. She is not pleased with the outcome of the trip.

Toriel felt many things as she stepped out of the grey door - excitement, dread, a renewed sense of grief. She didn’t need to read about the human she was rescuing - her name was Charlotte. A sweet, soft-spoken, innocent child with straight blond hair and an affinity for skirts that deserved a real home and a loving family.

The only thing she needed to know from the pamphlet Gaster had given her was how she had died - and as soon as she opened it, she was appalled.  _ Gaster _ had killed Charlotte himself, to use her soul for research. Toriel felt incredibly betrayed that the mysterious man had not told her this earlier; she may not have asked, but he should have known just how much it would hurt her. And yet he had the  _ gall _ to let her know via a piece of paper. It was disgusting - and she was going to have a very long conversation with him about it.

For now, though, Toriel needed to focus - the past version of Gaster that was planning to kill her adopted daughter was going to be very clever, and simply avoiding the location of her death might not be enough to escape him. She needed to find Charlotte as soon as possible, so that she could protect her.

She had died in Waterfall, apparently - not in the Ruins, as Frisk had once told her they had assumed. They had come into her home carrying a few of her things - a faded red ribbon and a plastic knife - but those had been lost for a very long time. Charlotte had spent years in Toriel’s home; those two items had come with her from the surface, but they did not leave the Ruins.

Toriel walked quickly, and it was only a few minutes before she saw the girl in the distance. She broke out into a run at the sight of her.

“Miss Toriel?” Charlotte froze in her tracks.

“Charlotte! Oh, my sweet child! Come here!” Toriel practically slid across the ground on her knees to wrap the child in a tight hug, trying to hold back tears. She knew this girl - she preferred cinnamon to butterscotch, she loved sewing and fashion and dresses, and azaleas were her most favorite flowers. She was Toriel’s sixth child (because she refused to ignore Chara or Asriel in that count), and she had missed her so very, very much.

“I… you said you couldn’t leave the Ruins,” Charlotte said, hugging Toriel back.

“Circumstances have changed, my dear,” Toriel said, not letting go. “I am here to protect you. You must come with me somewhere safe - I should never have left your side. Come, there is little time to waste.” She stood up and took Charlotte by the hand.

The girl resisted. “Miss Toriel, I can’t go back to the Ruins. Not without trying - please, you said you understood.”

Toriel pauses and took a deep breath. “We are not going to the Ruins, my child. After I get you to safety, you will be free to roam the Underground as you please - but there is a dangerous man after you right now. We must escape him.”

Toriel began walking, dragging Charlotte along with her. “A dangerous man? Is it Asgore? Miss Toriel, please let me talk to him. I know I can—“

“No,” Toriel cut her off. “It is not Asgore this time. There is someone else after you, and he means to do you harm. Please, my child, you must trust me. Have I not earned that?”

Charlotte sighed. “Yes, I do trust you, Miss Toriel. Let’s go.”

Toriel smiled, making haste towards the grey door. Unfortunately, it now seemed that she had company - there was Gaster, in a darkly-colored lab coat, inspecting the very same door she needed to pass through.

“I WANT A HALF-MILE QUARANTINE AROUND THE ENTIRE AREA,” he said to an assistant, busily taking notes on a clipboard. “NO ONE IN, NO ONE OUT. WE CAN INTERCEPT THE HUMAN HERE INSTEAD, SO I CAN CONTINUE RESEARCHING THE--” Gaster paused as he looked over at Toriel and the human. Toriel pushed Charlotte behind her gently. “QUEEN TORIEL. YOU ARE ALIVE, I SEE.”

“Doctor Gaster, I presume?” Toriel said formally.

“AH. YOU HAVE HEARD OF ME. HOW FLATTERING.”

Toriel took a deep breath, quickly becoming annoyed with his arrogant tone. “Well, if you will excuse me, Doctor, I must enter that door you are currently blocking. Please step aside.”

Gaster did not move. “I’M AFRAID THAT IS NOT POSSIBLE.” He raised his arm, and with a  _ ting _ Charlotte came flying through the air to his hand. 

Toriel dashed forward. “Unhand her at once!”

Charlotte struggled in the air as Gaster observed her soul. “I THINK NOT. KING ASGORE HIMSELF HAS GRANTED ME PERMISSION TO COLLECT AND RESEARCH HUMAN SOULS IN THE POSSIBILITY OF FINDING ALTERNATE METHODS OF DESTROYING THE BARRIER.”

“Well, I am your  _ queen _ , and I ORDER you to release her immediately.” Toriel stopped a few feet from the two of them.

Gaster glared at her. “YOU LOST THE RIGHT TO GIVE ME ORDERS WHEN YOU ABANDONED YOUR DUTIES AND YOUR PEOPLE. YOU ARE NOT MY QUEEN, NOR ANYONE ELSE’S. AS FAR AS I AM CONCERNED, YOU HAVE NO RIGHTS AT ALL.”

“Excuse me?”

“YES, YOU ARE EXCUSED. I HAVE WORK TO DO.” Gaster reached for the girl’s soul.

“I said  _ let go _ !” Toriel launched a fireball straight at Gaster’s head, which he deflected with blue magic.

“ATTACKING THE ROYAL SCIENTIST IS A CAPITAL OFFENSE, MADAM. I AM AFRAID I MUST TAKE YOU INTO CUSTODY.”

Toriel dodged aside as a pair of floating hands attempted to grab her from behind, and she launched a torrent of flames at him, careful to avoid Charlotte. It singed the edges of his coat as he leaped out of the way and struck out with a wave of bones.

Toriel knocked most of them aside with her arms, bruising them in the process, before running forward and pulling Charlotte from Gaster’s telekinetic grasp. With the girl in one arm, she made a break for the door.

She found Gaster’s blue magic resisting her as the scientist walked closer. He reached for Charlotte again, a sharpened bone poised to take her life and her soul.

“No!” Toriel’s flames turned blue with heat as a massive wave of magic poured out from her fingertips. Gaster tried to deflect it, but the fire was too potent. It struck him head-on.

Gaster crumbled to dust, leaving his clothes to smolder on the ground as Toriel watched in horror. She hadn’t meant to strike that hard - she didn’t mean to--

A mockingly cheerful tune played in the back of her mind as her LV increased. She stood there frozen for several moments before realizing that Charlotte was shaking and crying into Toriel’s shoulder. The queen wrapped the human in a tight hug as she walked to the door. “It is alright. You are safe now, my child.”

The other Gaster was waiting for her on the other side of the door. Toriel set Charlotte down on the ground, who immediately skittered behind her when she saw Gaster.

“It is alright,” Toriel assured her, putting a hand on her hair. “This is… not the same man.” Charlotte made no attempt to move, but she did release her deathgrip on Toriel’s dress. The queen gave Gaster a look of pure venom. “ _ Why _ did you not tell me?”

Gaster formed a path back towards the current timeline and began walking. “IT NOT WAS RELEVANT.”

Toriel marched up to him and grabbed him by the shoulder. “It is  _ extremely _ relevant,” she growled. “How dare you  _ not _ tell me that it was you who--” she paused as she looked back at Charlotte.

Gaster sighed, bringing his hand up to pinch the bridge of his nose. “I NOT DID TELL YOU BECAUSE I KNEW YOU REACT WOULD LIKE THIS. OUR TIME IS EXTREMELY LIMITED AND ONE NO HAS TIME FOR YOUR MANY PERSONAL GRIEVANCES.”

“I - no, you--”

“I AM A PRACTICAL MAN, TORIEL QUEEN. YOU HAVE THE CHILD, AND YOU NOW KNOW THE TRUTH. THERE IS NOTHING FURTHER TO DISCUSS.”

Gaster ignored her for the rest of the trip, but if she was being honest, she wasn’t in the mood to continue arguing. With every child she’d taken care of, she’d advocated pacifism - and she’d just killed someone. It was in defense of Charlotte, of course, but still - how could she look any of them in the eye now?

Neither Charlotte, Toriel, nor Gaster spoke for the entire walk. There was just dead silence.


	12. Justice

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Sans goes to find a human. Unfortunately, he's met her before.

Sans finally let his smile drop as he exited the grey room - he was not in the best place right now. It wasn’t because he didn’t like the plan, or because he was still afraid of Frisk; he was about as confident as someone could be in a soulless child that had previously murdered the entire Underground. No, he was uncomfortable because of the human he’d been assigned - he’d peeked at the pamphlet during the trip. Her name was Courtney, the sixth and last soul to fall before Frisk. And Sans had met her before.

And he’d killed her before.

In his defense, she was dangerous. She wasn’t a genocidal maniac by any means, but she’d taken “justice” into her own hands and killed any monster she felt was guilty of something. She was the reason Sans had made himself the unofficial judge of the Underground - he felt that the humans that fell deserved some real justice. Sans was pretty lenient when it came to circumstances; Courtney was not.

Truth be told, Courtney wasn’t the only human Sans had killed; he’d taken the fifth soul, too. That one really was dangerous - reckless and trigger happy. Sans didn’t feel all that guilty over him. But he’d be lying if there weren’t some selfish reasons involved; he got paid a lot of money for those souls. Enough to buy a nice house in Snowdin, even.

So how was he supposed to look this kid in the eye and tell her he needed her help?

Luckily, the trip deep into Hotland wasn’t much of an issue. Shortcuts were great. The first issue he needed to deal with was past-Sans; it was hard to outrun a teleporter, meaning that Sans needed to convince himself to leave the human alone. Thank the stars he was in a parallel timeline and didn’t have to worry about a causality paradox.

Sans saw other-him walking in his direction, through what would eventually become MTT resort. The building was fairly new, and the only thing that marked this particular space in Hotland at this point in time was the Royal Memorial fountain - it looked like a hooded monster with horns. The more Sans thought about it, the more he was certain he’d seen the same statue in Waterfall somewhere. Mettaton must have moved it.

“heya, pal,” Sans said, offering his hand to past-Sans. “long time no see.”

Past-Sans froze in his tracks before shaking his hand; the sound of a double-whoopee cushion gag bubbled through the air along with the laughter of a pair of skeletons.

“i always was good at entertaining myself,” past-Sans chuckled, putting his cushion back into his jacket pocket.

“yeah, we can be a real bonehead sometimes, huh?”

They shared another laugh. “you’re here about the kiddo, right?” past-Sans asked.

“yup. i kinda need you to, y’know, not kill her.”

Past-Sans raised a bone-brow. “you’re from the future, right? you do remember what she’s been doing?”

“yeah, i know. i need her help with something.” Sans kicked at the ground with his slippers.

Past-Sans’ eyesockets widened. “you must be pretty desperate if you’re recruiting dangerous humans from the past.”

“you could say that. anyway, you won’t have to worry about her. i’ll keep her out of your hair indefinitely,” Sans said with a wink.

“sure thing,” past-Sans nodded. “i should probably go check on pap anyway. the little tyke sure knows how to make a mess.” Past-Sans chuckled and then gave Sans a serious look. “how is he? y’know, in the future?”

“we screwed up a lot along the way, but he still turns out pretty great,” Sans assured him. Satisfied with the answer, past-Sans teleported away, and Sans waited for the human to arrive.

And then she arrived in her wide-brimmed hat and plaid shirt, her blonde pigtails bouncing up and down as she walked. As soon as she spotted Sans, she pulled out a revolver and pointed it straight at his head. “Don’t you move if ya know what’s good for you,” she barked.

Sans put his hands up, taking a deep breath. “i’m not here to hurt ya, kid. i just wanna talk.”

“Yeah, yeah, that’s what they all say,” Courtney said, walking closer and keeping the gun trained on him. Sans knew from experience that she had run out of bullets a long, long time ago, but that didn’t make the gun any less dangerous. Courtney had magic, just like the others, and unlike several of them, she knew how to use it. In fact, the special yellow button Alphys had installed on Frisk’s phone used magic from Courtney’s soul.

“you wouldn’t shoot an unarmed monster, would you?” Sans asked, stalling. He was still trying to figure out what to say to her.

“None of you monsters are unarmed,” she countered, circling around him. Sans would have found it funny if he didn’t know just how powerful she was.

“i guess that’s fair,” Sans shrugged. “still, it’s pretty rude to point a gun at a perfect stranger. don’t you have any manners?”

Courtney snorted. “I got whatever manners I wanna have, buddy. Don’t you go an’ tell me how I should be a lady, wearin’ dresses an’ throwing tea parties.” Sans became a little confused at that statement. “B’sides, you monsters ain’t have been all that hospitable to me either. Always goin’ on about taking my soul for the king an’ crap. So you can shut yer trap.”

“yeah, well maybe we’d be a bit nicer if you humans didn’t kill a bunch of us and lock us up in a cave. just a thought,” Sans said. He was beginning to remember just how much Courtney rubbed him the wrong way.

“Yeah, yeah, I saw yer whole history in Waterfall. Doesn’t give you the right to go an’ murder people.”

“so what gives you the right, huh? just ‘cause _you_ think someone’s bad, that gives you the right to go and blast ‘em full of holes?”

“I ain’t attacked nobody unless they come after me first. It just so happens that tryna maul somebody seems a pretty common way of greetin’ people ‘round here.”

Sans bit back another retort. He needed Courtney’s help, not her wrath. “look, i’m sorry you haven’t been treated well. everyone’s afraid of you - and they have plenty of reason to be considering you just put a bunch of their friends and family in an early grave.”

Courtney clenched her jaw. “Yeah, well they shouldn’ta came after me. Now whaddaya want, ya sack of bones?”

Sans swallowed the little bit of pride he had. “i need your help.”

“Why the blazes would I help _you_?” Courtney laughed. “I’m here to find that human that disappeared here a few years back and get the hell outta Dodge.”

“i know where he is,” Sans sighed. “or where he will be, anyway. there’s a lunatic on the loose back at home and we need humans to help stop them. after that, you can go straight back to where you came from.”

“Well, doesn’t that sound just peachy?” Courtney scoffed. “Do ya think I was born yesterday? If there were some crazy person runnin’ around these parts, I would’ve heard of ‘em by now.”

“i’m not from here. not really, anyway.”

“Then where’ya from, pardner? Underground ain’t all that big a place.”

“i’m from the future.”

“The future,” Courtney said skeptically.

“what? you fall into a mountain full of magic and monsters and you think time travel’s impossible?”

Courtney raised an eyebrow. “Fine, let’s say I do believe you. Where do I find the missin’ boy, and when do I get out?”

Sans looked at the ground. “you... don’t. both of you died down here.” Courtney prepared to fire her gun. “a friend of mine’s going to save him right now,” Sans said frantically, waving his arms. “if this works, there won’t have been any humans that died down here other than the king and queen’s adopted kid.”

“There’s somethin’ you ain’t tellin’ me,” Courtney glared at him. Her eyes were glowing yellow. “You got somethin’ on your conscience, pardner.” Sans remembered one of the reasons why Courtney was so dangerous - her soul trait gave her Karmic Retribution, like he had. His own LV and low HP meant she could dust him with as much as a scratch.

“Admit it. You’re the one that killed me, ain’tcha?” A bolt of yellow light shot from the gun as the world flickered out into black and white, and Sans teleported out of the way.

This was really not the way Sans wanted this to go. He summoned a Gaster Blaster and fired a short beam from behind her - he had to be careful with her HP. She staggered forward and spun around, gasping in pain. Her eyes widened as her HP began to drain.

“not as fun when you feel your own sins crawling on your back, huh?” Sans said as she clutched at her chest. KR scaled with LV, and Courtney definitely had plenty of LV to fuel it.

She snapped out of her shock and fired three more times, missing Sans by inches as he dodged. Sans slammed her down with blue magic and sent a wave of bone attacks at her. She dodged most of them, but she still took damage. Sans checked her.

Courtney - ATK 45 DEF 25 

LV 10 

HP 32/56 (KR 14) 

She thinks what she’s doing is right. 

Sans decided she could take another Gaster blast and set up a ring of them around her; Courtney fired at them and then at him, but one still grazed her shoulder as Sans continued to teleport around the battlefield. She began breathing heavily as the KR kept eating away at her health.

“If you think… I’m goin’ down without a fight… you’re wrong,” she huffed, aiming the gun at Sans again. She fired one shot, which he was easily able to dodge. Her HP fell to one as she fell onto her knees, the KR having done its work.

Sans teleported next to her, pinned her to the ground with blue magic, and yanked the gun out of her hands. She was too weak to resist.

“Get on with it, ya scoundrel,” Courtney growled at him. “I ain’t afraid to die.”

“yeah, that’s great and all,” Sans rolled his eyes, sitting down across from her. Battles were exhausting. “but i’m not here to kill you. yeah, i did kill you before. mostly ‘cause you were making a big stink and killing a bunch of people. right now, though, i just want your help. maybe consider that next time you try to kill someone.”

She struggled against Sans’ magic, but it wasn’t helping. This battle had been a lot shorter than his fight with Frisk and he had plenty of magic left. “you keep saying you only kill in self defense, but have you considered that maybe all those monsters you dusted thought they were doing the same thing? that if they didn’t stop you, you’d go on to kill their husbands or their wives or their kids? ‘cause that’s exactly what you ended up doing. i know i’ve made some mistakes, but i don’t even have half of your lv, sister.”

“LV’s just how strong you are,” Courtney said, confused.

Sans raised his bone-brows. Where did all these humans get that idea? “lv’s an acronym, kiddo. it stands for _level of violence_. it’s a measure of someone’s capacity to hurt others.”

Courtney’s eyes widened. “No… no, that can’t be right.”

“i’m the judge of the underground, so i’m definitely right. you’re halfway to the maximum - lv 20. that makes you a pretty bad person,” Sans said, letting his eyes flicker out. “besides, you felt my kr. that stuff only works on ‘bad monsters,’ right? so what does that make you?”

Courtney started shaking. Sans didn’t feel all that guilty - this kid needed to be taught a lesson. “lucky for you, miss bad person, there’s a worse person running around and threatening the people i care about, so i’ll let your bad behavior slide for now if you agree to come with me. but if you hurt anyone else - especially any of my friends - you’re really gonna have a bad time. capiche?”

Courtney nodded and Sans released his magic; she slowly rose from the ground, silent. Sans put a hand on her shoulder, and she turned to look at him. “c’mon. i know a shortcut back to waterfall.”


	13. Bravery

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Undyne was given the most dangerous assignment of all. It doesn't go as smoothly as she hoped it would.

Undyne made it to the Ruins door in record time - the human wouldn’t be coming through for another five minutes or so. Sure, she got more than a few weird looks as she sprinted through the streets of Snowdin, but she was used to drawing attention. She was somewhat difficult to ignore.

Getting here was the easy part, though - both Gaster and Frisk had warned her that she had been given the most difficult assignment by far. Not only was this human the most dangerous of the six - his name was James - but apparently Sans had done away with him outside this very door. Hopefully it wouldn’t be that hard to keep the little skeleton out of the way, but this version of Sans had no idea who she was. Undyne wasn’t even the Royal Guard captain yet in this timeline.

There was also the issue of Chara. Because of a bunch of scientific mumbo-jumbo that Undyne wasn’t even going to pretend to understand (even if Alphys was adorable when she was excited about nerdy science stuff), the timeline she’d been dropped off in was very close to the one Chara was currently ripping to shreds. As confident as Undyne was in her abilities, she didn’t exactly have a winning record against the brat and it would be better for everyone if she avoided them altogether.

“heya,” a voice said from behind her. Undyne turned around to find Sans grinning up at her. “haven’t seen you around snowdin before. the name’s sans.” He extended his hand.

“I’m never falling for that again,” Undyne rolled her good eye. “I swear I almost bashed your skull in the first time you - uh. I mean. The first time my friend did that to me.”

Sans looked more than a little confused, but he lowered his hand. “everyone’s got their own sense of humor, i guess. personally, i find the old whoopee cushion in the hand trick funny every time.” He winked at her. “you don’t look very comfortable out here. what brings you out here in the snow?”

“Yeah, yeah, I hate the cold,” Undyne scoffed. “And that’s none of your business. So why don’t you skedaddle on home?”

“someone’s prickly,” Sans said. “i’m just a concerned citizen. you came flying through here like a bat out of hell and i thought something was  _ fishy _ .”

“Were you ever  _ not _ insufferable?”

“i’m sorry, have we met before? ‘cause you seem to know an awful lot about me and i have no idea who you are,” Sans said. Damn him and his ability to pick up on things.

“You just… remind me a lot of someone else.”

Sans just chuckled. “who is this guy? is he taller than me? more charming?”

Undyne was desperately trying to resist the urge to punch him square in his bony face, but Sans wasn’t making it easy. At least her Sans knew when to stop. “I’ve got a girlfriend, jackass,” she growled, turning back to the door. Despite her current annoyance, it actually felt nice to say that word out loud - girlfriend. Alphys was her  _ girlfriend _ now. Just the thought of it made her feel warmer.

Sans raised his hands in a placating manner. “sorry, sorry. i’m only teasing. you’re not my type anyway,” he winked. He looked at the door. “y’know, i’ve never been this deep in the woods before. this must be the door to the ruins, huh?”

“Do you  _ ever _ stop talking?” Undyne asked.

“hey now, i’m just tryin’ ta have a friendly conversation here. from what i hear, the door’s been locked for a long time now, so i wouldn’t bother waiting around. unless you know someone on the other side?”

Undyne growled under her breath. “Yes, I know someone on the other side, and he’ll be here in a few minutes. And when he gets here, we’re going to have a  _ private _ conversation. So buzz off before I launch you back to Snowdin like a football.”

“eh. beats walking all the way back,” Sans chuckled. “he from the future too, or are you here to change the past or something?”

“W...What?” There was no way he could’ve known that.

“i’ve been following you since you left that weird grey door in waterfall. that thing reeked of time anomalies, and so do you, for that matter. time travel’s tricky business. i’m just making sure you aren’t gonna create a causality paradox and erase us all or somethin’.”

“I really hate you sometimes, Sans,” Undyne said. “Alphys might be smart, but at least she isn’t smug about it like you.”

“wait, alphys is your girlfriend?” Sans started laughing. Come on, was she really that transparent? “i can see it, actually. you’re almost like a character straight out of one of her fanfics.”

“Huh? Really?” Undyne didn’t know Alphys wrote fanfiction.

“yup. she kinda coerced me into readin’ a few of them, once upon a time. they were, uh… interesting.” Sans looked a little embarrassed. Undyne was  _ definitely _ going to ask Alphys about this when she got back.

“Anyway, you don’t have to worry about me causing redoxes or whatever. I’m from another timeline-thing, and I need this person to come with me to save the Underground.”

“wow, that’s… pretty intense,” Sans said. “i’ll leave you to it, then. i guess. you seem like you know what you’re doing. any messages from the future for me?”

Undyne thought for a moment. “Keep Papyrus away from the human. Far, far away.”

Sans’ ever-present grin faltered. “human? what human? what are you talking about?”

“Just… just do it. I was supposed to protect Papyrus from them, and I wasn’t there. So keep him away from them.”

“where you’re from… is he…?”

“He’s fine. It’s complicated.” Undyne heard footsteps on the other side of the door. “Just go. I have a job to do.” Sans nodded slowly and vanished from sight as the Ruins door swung open.

The human was a lot older than Frisk, and way more muscular. He had short, dark hair and slanted eyes, and he had a bandana tied around his neck. He wore jeans and a t-shirt, and had what looked like faded pink gardening gloves that he’d cut the fingertips off of.

“Finally, you show up. Come on, punk, you’re coming with me,” Undyne said. The sooner they left, the better.

“Yeah, I don’t think so,” James said. “Get the hell out of my way before I dust you. That’s your only warning.”

Oh, Undyne wanted to spear him right then and there. But she needed him alive to save her people, so she steadied her throwing hand. “As entertaining as it would be to see you try,” Undyne said, gritting her teeth, “I’m not here to fight. I need your help, and if you help me, we’ll get you back home in no time flat.”

“Yeah, I’m not that dumb,” James said, swinging at Undyne with his fists as the world turned black-and-white. Both his hands and his eyes glowed orange.

As much as Undyne didn’t have time for this, she actually kind of liked the idea of a real fight - not like the one where Frisk just ran away constantly while Undyne threw spears after them. She just had to make sure not to kill James, and the rest of her friends could handle all the explaining-convincing-feelings stuff. She considered it an exercise in control.

James wasn’t even half as accurate as Frisk had been in their training sessions, and Undyne sidestepped his attack easily. She tossed him a bent spear for blocking - she wanted a fair fight - and launched a barrage of spears. James knocked all but one aside, taking a gash on his leg.

He was more measured with his next attack and managed to land a hit on her armor; Undyne wasn’t prepared for the force of the blow. He knocked out almost an eighth of her HP with one hit - intent to kill was one thing, but there was no way he should be that strong.

Even though she usually considered it a waste of time, Undyne used her turn to check him.

James - ATK 125 DEF 18

LV 8

HP 44/48

He won’t listen to reason.

His attack to LV ratio made no sense - a fact that Undyne didn’t have time to contemplate as she ducked under another swing of his fists and launched another barrage of spears.

Clearly, James was a believer in ‘the best defense is a good offense’ - a philosophy that Undyne shared, though the situation had her on the cautious side currently. He focused on attacking her rather than blocking, and it began to take a toll on his HP. He wasn’t used to someone that could take more than a few hits from him.

After backflipping out of the way of another reckless swing, Undyne wrapped her arms around one of the region’s thin trees and pulled it free of its roots with a loud snap. James blinked and began to backpedal as she swung the tree around like an oversized baseball bat, slamming him into the side of the Ruins.

He slid to the ground and collapsed. “Oh, shit,” Undyne said under her breath, rushing over to him. She bent down and felt his pulse - his heart was still beating. She had just knocked him unconscious, thank the stars. Luckily, Undyne had actually brought handcuffs with her in case James gave her trouble. She clipped them on his wrists and tossed him over her shoulder.

Just as she began to walk back towards Waterfall, she heard the Ruins door swing open again.  _ Don’t tell me I have to deal with Toriel, too _ , she thought, turning around.

It wasn’t Toriel. It was another human, similar to Frisk in size and age, wearing a green sweater and holding a dusty, plastic knife. They had a ribbon tied into their hair.

The child grinned wickedly. “Well, well, well. I knew something was strange about this run. How are you, Undyne?”

Undyne tossed James off to the side and summoned a spear. “You must be Chara.”

Chara chuckled. “The one and only.”

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Ah. I can finally get this thing moving again.
> 
> In case any of you are total nerds like me, I have actually been calculating all the humans' stats. James' attack is five times as high as Frisk's would be at LV 8, assuming they wear the same equipment.
> 
> Also, in case anyone's interested in my particular portrayal of the human souls, I'll be uploading a fic devoted to them called Falling Down in my Old Stories series sometime in the near future. I'll see you all next time, and have a great day!


	14. Undying

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Undyne and Chara battle.

The air crackled with electricity as Undyne launched her spear. Chara sidestepped lazily, still grinning. “You never change, do you?” they chuckled. “Always so violent.”

“You don’t have any room to talk, punk!” Undyne shouted, locking Chara in place with green magic. They didn’t react. “I’m not going to let you hurt anyone else -  _ ever again _ .” Undyne didn’t hold back this time; her wave of spears was immediate and overwhelming. She didn’t even bother to give the punk a blocking spear - no more kid gloves.

Chara simply took their toy knife and batted each and every one of her spears out of the air as if they were moving in slow motion. “That’s new,” Chara chuckled. “What brings you here, Undyne? I wasn’t expecting you so soon.” Undyne ignored them and launched more spears; again, not a single one hit. “Hmm. How strange. You’re normally very chatty. Don’t you have a speech about hopes and dreams and saving the world you want to give me?”

Chara’s eyes flared red as Undyne’s green magic broke. They dashed forward, impossibly fast, and slashed with their knife.

Undyne’s armor split open, and then her skin, and then her ribcage - one hit, and she was torn in half. Chara stepped back and crossed their hands behind their back, as if waiting for something.

How had Undyne failed already? Everyone was relying on her. Frisk has told her that she was the only one that had a chance at stopping Chara, and with one hit, she was already… already…

No.

It wasn’t going to end like this. Undyne was stronger than that. Even better - she was determined.

She felt a spark in her chest amongst the searing pain. Then, a fire spreading through her blood. Soon, she couldn’t even feel the slash wound over the strange, burning feeling. She felt her own magic transform her body into something new - Chara smiled, and clapped slowly.

“No dramatic reincarnation speech? Honestly, Undyne, I’m disappointed. How anticlimactic.”

Undyne took a deep breath and summoned another spear. The smell of ozone filled the air as electricity sparked off of it. “I’m not here for your entertainment,” Undyne said. Her voice seemed to echo. “This isn’t a game. So for every person you’ve killed; for every world you’ve destroyed; and for every one that’s left - I’m going to stop you, right here, right now.”

“I suppose that’ll work,” Chara chuckled. There was a crash of thunder as Undyne fired her spear and Chara backflipped out of the way of the resulting explosion.

Undyne locked Chara in place mid handstand as she summoned another dozen spears with a snap of her fingers; Chara spun in place and deflected them with their shoes. They broke free again and slashed at her with their knife - their eyes flashed red again as Undyne attempted to dodge, dragging her into the attack.

It barely hurt at all this time - drops of glowing scarlet fell from her skin as the cut cauterized itself. Emboldened by the rush of power, Undyne struck out with her fists - a left swing from the side, a straight punch, then an upper - no. Remembering what Frisk had advised her to do, she changed her mind last minute and kicked Chara in the stomach. It was the first hit Undyne landed, sending the human sprawling across the snow. They stood up slowly, wiping a trickle of blood from the corner of their mouth.

“Well, that’s hardly fair,” Chara chuckled. “You’ve been practicing, haven’t you?” Undyne rushed forward and attacked again - a side sweep, a spear stab that went over Chara’s shoulder, then a  backhand headbutt that sent the punk back onto the ground. Undyne didn’t let up, and this time her hits actually started landing. Gashes began appearing on the human’s skin as their HP fell steadily.

It was finally Chara’s turn to get an attack in as they rolled away and sprung to their feet with a flurry of slashes. Even when Undyne tried to change the way she dodged, every hit landed - the royal guard was positive that there was some sort of magic involved.

“Y’know,” Chara huffed as they barely dodged another spear, “it’s ironic that the Undyne who  _ knows _ she’s a failure would be more of a challenge than the unbeaten, heroic one.”

The next spear hit, slashing the side of Chara’s thigh open. “What the hell are you talking about?” Undyne growled.

“Oh, you know perfectly well. You let me destroy the entire Underground. I killed Papyrus. I killed Asgore.” They smirked. “You let me kill Alphys.” Even though Undyne’s next string of attacks were twice as fast and carried twice as much force, Chara dodged them much more easily.

“Admit it, Undyne,” Chara giggled, dodging a swipe at their neck, “you not only failed, you failed spectacularly. Everyone - the entire  _ world _ was relying on you, and you let them down. And somewhere in the back of your mind, you know you’re going to fail again.”

Undyne’s attacks were frenzied now, tearing apart the ground and the trees and the stone of the Ruins and anything else that got in her way - except Chara. The human simply smiled and stepped out of the way every time like it was a dance.

Chara stabbed forward with their knife, driving it straight into Undyne’s chest. She staggered backward, trying to keep the blood from pouring out with one hand while she blocked Chara’s strikes with the other. She felt her vision growing darker, and - no.

No, she wasn’t done yet. She  _ refused _ to let Chara win.

Her mind felt foggy, though. Had Chara stopped attacking her? Yes, they had - they were standing a little ways from her, hands crossed behind their back. Her muscles felt like they had gone slack, and her skin felt slick - or was it sticky? It must have been blood or sweat… or…

* * *

 

Everyone was crowded around the screen, but it was Alphys that watched most intently. This felt familiar - it felt so familiar to her. She watched as Undyne’s skin began to turn pale and  _ drip _ off of her body, and the tight, gripping pain in her chest felt almost like she’d known it before. Undyne couldn’t lose, not now - and Alphys realized that was the problem. The only thing that could kill Undyne was her own determination to live. It was a cruel irony.

But amongst the deathgrip of grief and fear was something else. It was thin and fragile, but it was there - and Alphys grabbed onto it. She turned away from the screen and pushed past Sans and Asgore.

“al, it’s… it’s gonna be okay,” Sans lied. He put his hand on her shoulder, and she brushed it off. “alphys. i’m so, so sorry. look, it’s not in vain, okay? we’re gonna…” Alphys tuned him out; then, she took a deep breath.

Then she ran.

* * *

 

“I’ll never… give up hope…” Undyne said, breathing labored. “You haven’t… won yet…”

Chara laughed aloud. “Haven’t I? It’s over, Undyne. You failed again.”

“No. As long as my friends… as long as  _ anyone _ is still alive… you haven’t won. Frisk… and Alphys… and the rest of them will stop you. And through them… I’ll live on.”

Chara began clapping slowly. “Bravo. Just like an anime character, Undyne, really.”

Undyne rose from her knees, even though her bones felt like jelly. “But we’re… not quite there yet…” Undyne summoned another spear. “Because I’m still going to kill you.”

“Big words coming from the talking puddle,” Chara said, seizing the spear in midair.

“Come on… hit me with your best shot,” Undyne said. Her voice gurgled like she was underwater.

“If you insist.” Chara walked forward and kicked Undyne back onto the ground with one foot. “You know, in the past, I’ve just watched you melt into sludge. Maybe this time I’ll actually kill you,” they mused. Undyne tried to raise her arms to push Chara away, but they bent like noodles and flopped back to the ground.

“Well, thank you for an interesting fight, Undyne. I was starting to get bored.”

They raised their knife.


	15. I'm Not Leaving Now

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Alphys finds her courage.

There was little more than surprise running through Chara’s mind as they were thrown against the Ruins wall, body convulsing with pulses of electricity. Oh well - it wasn’t like they could really feel the pain anymore. They’d just load once they died, and…

Except they weren’t dying. The electricity had them close to that edge, but they hadn’t crossed it yet. How frustrating.

* * *

 

Undyne was confused - she heard something between a scream of terror and a battle cry, and suddenly Chara was gone from view. It sounded like someone was calling her name, but everything sounded like she was back underwater. No, screw water - like molasses. She could barely think.

* * *

 

“Oh my God, I did it!” Alphys said, staring in awe at the scene before her. The electric-net cannon she’d magically constructed on the way here had actually worked - Chara was on the ground, immobilized, and Alphys was actually alive. They hadn’t gone back in time yet, either - that meant they could still escape.

Then she looked at Undyne, and her panic returned full-force. Alphys ran over to the melting fish monster. “Undyne! Undyne, I’m right here, look at me!”

Undyne blinked slowly. “...phys?”

“Yeah, it’s me! It’s Alphys!” The scientist’s heart was pounding out of her chest, and not in the good way. There wasn’t any time for this. She looked at Sans - well, alternate-timeline Sans - and pointed to James. “Grab him and get us back to the door!”

Sans nodded, grabbed the human, and teleported to Alphys. Alphys wrapped her arms around Undyne, pulling her into a sitting position - her eyes grew wide with horror as her body bent, boneless and limp like a ragdoll. And her skin - her skin was  _ sticky _ , clinging to Alphys’ scales like melted marshmallows. Sans grabbed Alphys’ shoulder, and they were back at the grey door.

“good luck,” Sans told her, disappearing from view. The door swung open, and Alphys felt herself floating in the air, still clinging to Undyne. It was Gaster.

“HOLD ON,” Gaster told her. He sent Alphys and Undyne hurtling through the void towards home with a burst of telekinetic force. Then he picked up the human in his arms and began walking.

* * *

 

It took all of Alphys’ will not to break down into hysterical tears. Undyne’s melting flesh felt like acid - it was eating through her scales. She could feel the determination start to course its way through her own veins as it burned its way into her body. She could feel the burning rush that Undyne must have felt, pushing against the pain, though it only seemed to make it worse. This must be what all of her lab subjects felt like. She wanted to shrivel up and die with her grief and shame.

But she couldn’t. She couldn’t give up now.

She landed gently outside of the door - her Sans caught her with his own magic and teleported to the true lab. Everyone was there, waiting. Papyrus rushed over to help them.

“NO! Don’t touch her!” Alphys shouted, and Papyrus shrunk away. Alphys could feel the determination clouding her mind over. If they were like this much longer, Alphys and Undyne were going to melt into an amalgamate - and while Alphys might deserve that, Undyne didn’t, and Alphys certainly wasn’t going to let Papyrus get tangled up as well.

Alphys forced herself to take a step towards the DT Extraction Machine, even though her legs felt like jelly. Then she took another step, and everyone moved out of the way. Then another step, then another. Alphys’ vocal chords felt sore - it felt like she was screaming. She was, she realized; she was shouting out some kind of desperate war cry, fueled by the determination running through her.

With one last shove, Undyne fell into the machine, sticky strands of melted flesh still hanging in the air between her and Alphys. The machine doors closed as Sans activated the machine, and Alphys collapsed to the ground. He teleported over to her.

“hey, al. alphys. can you hear me?” He almost tried shaking her, but he was afraid to touch her.

“Yeah, I’m here. I c-can hear you.” Alphys slurred. She sounded exhausted.

“good. you just keep talking to me, yeah? gotta make sure you stay awake until it’s your turn.”

“I-Is she… okay?” Alphys asked. The humming of the machine was making her drowsy, but she tried to stay awake.

“she’ll be fine, i know it. you did good, al.” The machine whirred to a stop, and Sans teleported back to the control panel.

Undyne slumped out of the machine, barely conscious but intact. There were places on her body where her scales looked like they had been burned through, exposing the red flesh beneath; in others, her scales had been stained yellow.

“get her outta the way, pap,” Sans said, teleporting back to Alphys and helping her to her feet. Papyrus dragged Undyne away and leaned her against a nearby wall. “c’mon, al, we gotta get you in that machine.”

She limped over to it with Sans’ aid and laid back in the device. A few moments later, and the fog on Alphys’ mind had lifted - she was no worse for wear other than some blue-green stains on her scales where she had touched Undyne. Alphys walked over to the fish monster, and the others gave them the room; Undyne’s breathing was shallow, but she was alive.

“...Alphy?” Undyne asked, opening her good eye. She looked around. “Where’s the kid? And the brat?”

Alphys held her hand, pushing her back down when she tried to get up. “S-Stop, Undyne. You r-really need to rest. U-Um, Gaster is bringing J-James back as we speak, he should be here any time now. A-And, uh, Chara’s s-still back in that other timeline, s-so we’re safe for now.”

“You saved me, didn’t you?” Undyne said. She smiled.

“I-I… u-um, w-well, I-I mean sort of, b-but Sans is the one who g-got me there in time and G-Gaster helped--”

“No. It was you,” Undyne said. “Sorry I missed it. I bet it was totally awesome,” she chuckled. “How did you beat the punk?”

Alphys blushed. “I-I just m-made, um, an electric net launcher to trap them temporarily without allowing them to alter the timeline before we left it,” she said.

“That sounds so cool,” Undyne said. She leaned over and wrapped her arms around Alphys; Alphys’ heart started pounding again. “Looks like you were  _ my _ hero this time, huh?”

“I-I just… I couldn’t lose you this time. Not when I finally… not when we…” Alphys sighed. The words just escaped her.

“I love you,” Undyne said. Alphys didn’t even respond, as if her brain had short-circuited. “I have for a while now - I’ve always wanted to tell you that. And I’m not leaving now, or ever.” She leaned over and kissed Alphys on the lips.

Alphys returned the embrace, putting her own arms around Undyne. They pulled each other closer, relaxing into each other as the rest of the world fell away.

It turned out that maybe it was Alphys’ brain that was always getting in the way of everything, because with it out of commission, she finally didn’t feel so awkward. This… being with Undyne… it just felt natural.

Alphys made Undyne feel a lot of things. She made her feel strong, and brave. She made Undyne feel like she was dying over just how adorable Alphys was. This time was a little different, though; this time, Alphys made her feel safe.

Undyne pulled away and laid her head on Alphys’ shoulder. The lizard monster’s brain blinked back to life as if a switch had been thrown. “That, u-u-um, th-that was, u-uh, r-really nice,” she stuttered. Curse her stupid mouth. She decided to stop talking.

“Yeah, it was,” Undyne mumbled sleepily.

“W-We should, um, get you u-up to a bed so you can rest,” Alphys said, moving to get up.

Undyne pushed her back down. Even in her weakened state, she was still several times stronger than Alphys. “Nah. I’m comfy right here.” She let out a contented yawn and nuzzled into Alphys’ shoulder.

Then, Alphys’ brain proceeded to short out again, because  _ ohmygodundynewassleepingonhershouldertherewasnowaythiswasactuallyhappeningohmygodohmygodaaaahhhhhhhHHHHH _

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Alphys.exe has stopped responding, please contact tech support


	16. Old Wounds

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> The group prepares their plan to stop Chara, and conversations are had.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> So. Have an extra-long chapter because the author kept wanting to write about a bunch of different relationships and before he knew it, this happened.

The plan that the group came up with - spearheaded by Gaster - was theoretical at best. There were two problems to deal with; Frisk’s soul and Chara’s LV. From everything Frisk had learned and the mysterious doctor had observed, it was the LV that allowed them to destroy timelines; it had to be recharged each time with another genocide run. It was the determination in Frisk’s soul, however, that allowed Chara to survive the destruction of and trip between timelines. The LV wasn’t really something they could alter, but hopefully the soul was.

Frisk knew from battling Flowey the first time they fell that human souls held some kind of connection. The idea was that the other humans would be able to pull Frisk’s soul away from the demon child somehow. Unfortunately, Chara had their own determination on top of Frisk’s and that wouldn’t be enough to get rid of them. Gaster told them that the erased timelines still existed in some way; like a blank slate, with nothing on it. If they could lure Chara into the first timeline they destroyed and left them there without Frisk’s soul, they would be trapped there for eternity with no one left to harm and charge their LV.

At least, that was the idea.

Gaster, Sans, and Alphys busied themselves with prepping machines and planning escape routes. Undyne reluctantly laid in bed with Papyrus tending to her, agreeing that if she wanted to be fit to fight by the time everyone was ready, she needed plenty of rest and monster food. Frisk bounced between the two groups, answering questions and generally being as helpful as possible. That just left Toriel, Asgore, and the humans.

Toriel, of course, cried when she returned to the timeline initially and saw three more of her children waiting for her. Olivia immediately jumped into her arms and Andy gave her a warm hug; Landon, ever formal, greeted her with a handshake. That was alright - she knew him well enough to know that he was not a hugger. Charlotte hid behind her dress the entire time; she was a shy little girl. She and Olivia eventually hit it off, though, and started up a conversation while Landon sat in a corner with one of his books, preferring his solitude. Toriel chatted with Andy for hours on end - he was the oldest of the group and could hold an adult conversation. It felt surreal catching up with him - for Andy, it had been a few short days since he had seen Toriel. For Toriel, it had been decades.

Courtney acted strangely when she arrived with Sans. She seemed spooked by something, which Toriel found disconcerting - the girl did not scare easily. Her nerves were on edge and she was hyper-aware of everything she said, as if the human was afraid she was going to say something wrong. Toriel checked her and found that her LV had skyrocketed since she saw her last, and the former queen felt her heart break a little. More than a little - Courtney had killed someone after she left the Ruins. Multiple someones. Toriel couldn’t help but feel responsible. The girl sat by herself, staring at the pistol she carried with an unnatural intensity. Toriel didn’t know how to help her.

Things were worse when James arrived. Toriel’s concern for Undyne dissipated when Gaster brought in the bleeding, bruised young man - he was unconscious and wearing  _ handcuffs _ of all things. She immediately snatched him from Gaster when they returned and brought him to one of the beds in the true lab. She checked him as she prepared to remove the handcuffs and froze.

James had 8 LV. He had 8 LV and had just barely left the Ruins. How many monsters did he kill under her watch? The more she thought about it, the more disturbed she became. She always took the humans’ side, even the ones she knew relatively little about. James had always been a troubled young man, but she gave him the benefit of the doubt. Had she been wrong to?

She left the handcuffs on.

Toriel began to question her own motives. She never wanted these children to be butchered for their souls, but how many lives had it inadvertently cost? Far more than six, from what she could tell.

_ They cannot be held responsible for their actions, _ Toriel told herself.  _ They are only children, and they were frightened. _ She ignored the fact that she knew James wasn’t really a child. Neither was Andy, for that matter.

* * *

Asgore avoided the human children - he honestly wanted to talk to and apologize to them for everything he’d done, but he knew it would likely upset Toriel. He was a little surprised when one of the children came and sought him out - a little girl in a pale blue skirt.

“Are you Mr. Asgore?” the girl asked shyly.

“I am. What can I do for you, little one?” The girl climbed up onto the bench next to him and he scooted over to give her room.

“You’re Miss Toriel’s husband, right?” she asked, looking up at him. Asgore looked away, feeling his soul break a little.

“E...Ex-husband, child,” he said. He had to force the words out of his lungs as if they themselves didn’t want to be said. “We are… no longer together. And we have not been for some time.”

The child looked as if she had been struck, looking away from him. Asgore struggled to remember her name - he was certain it had come up in a conversation somewhere before. “Your name is Charlotte, yes?” he asked. She nodded. “Charlotte, Toriel and I are not something you need concern yourself with. Her quarrel is with me. It has nothing to do with you.”

Ironically, the statement wasn’t entirely true. It didn’t seem like she felt guilty, though. “My parents don’t love each other anymore, either.”

Oh. “I… am very sorry, dear child. No one should have to go through that.” Asgore nearly flinched when Charlotte wrapped her thin arms around him and nuzzled her face into his side. He wasn’t wearing his armor at the moment.

“My mom did something bad. Daddy won’t tell me what it was, but he always gets mad when I ask. Or he cries,” she told him. Asgore placed a giant furry hand on her shoulder and pulled her closer. The feeling felt familiar. “Are you sorry?” Charlotte looked up at him.

“Hmm?” Asgore pulled himself away from his thoughts of Asriel. Asriel was gone, and Charlotte was the one seeking comfort now. He owed her whatever help he could give.

“Toriel told me that you did something bad. Are you sorry for it?”

Asgore struggled to keep tears from falling. He was not going to cry in front of this poor child; she had gone through plenty without adding his mess to hers. “Yes. I am very sorry,” he said at last. And he meant it - he meant it so very much.

“Then why aren’t you together anymore?” Charlotte asked. It sounded more like a plea. “Daddy told me the reason he was leaving mom was because she wouldn’t even say sorry. If you’re sorry, then don’t you still love her?”

Charlotte’s questions were beginning to shred Asgore’s bruised heart. “I do love her. I love her very, very much. But sometimes… when a person does a very, very bad thing… saying sorry does not make it better.”

“But that’s not fair,” Charlotte started sobbing softly, holding him tighter. Asgore looked away as he began crying silently as well. “If I get my mom to say sorry, then Daddy will love her again, right?”

It was a battle in and of itself for Asgore to keep his tone even. “You will learn someday that love is a very complicated thing, Charlotte. You must never give up hope, but… some things cannot be fixed. I am sorry.” The girl hugged him even tighter. “But there is something else. I am certain that  _ both _ of your parents love you very dearly. Even a squabble with each other will not change that.” Asgore could tell by the way she reacted that he had found the real root of her fears. He picked her up and held her in his lap.

* * *

“WHAT ELSE DO YOU NEED, UNDYNE?” Papyrus asked enthusiastically, handing Undyne two glasses of water. She dumped one over her head and gulped the other down. “I AM HERE TO ATTEND TO YOUR EVERY DESIRE!”

Undyne appreciated Papyrus being so helpful, but she really hated being babied. “You’ve done plenty, Papyrus. Why don’t you sit down for a little while instead of whirling all over creation getting knick-knacks and doo-dads to entertain me?”

“ARE YOU SURE? I AM CERTAIN DOCTOR ALPHYS HAS SOME HANDHELD PUZZLES STASHED SOMEWHERE!”

“No more puzzles!” Undyne snapped, grabbing Papyrus and forcing him down into a chair. The next puzzle she saw was getting smashed between her teeth. “The company’s plenty for now.”

Papyrus blushed a little. “WELL, OF COURSE! THE GREAT PAPYRUS ALWAYS MAKES FOR EXCELLENT COMPANY.”

Undyne chuckled. “Yeah, he does. Get over here, you!” Undyne grabbed him in a headlock and gave him a noogie. Despite Papyrus’ best efforts, he couldn’t break free. How was she still this strong while nursing an injury?!

She finally released him. “I mean it, Papyrus. You really are amazing.”

Papyrus tapped his fingers together nervously. “AMAZING ENOUGH, PERHAPS… TO JOIN THE ROYAL GUARD?”

Undyne’s smile dropped. She had been waiting for that question. “Um, about that, Papyrus… I… I don’t think you’re cut out for the Royal Guard.”

Papyrus began floundering. “B-BUT, I’M VERY STRONG AND I’VE BEEN VERY VERY HELPFUL LIKE HOW I’M HELPING YOU RIGHT NOW AND WHEN I HELPED YOU BEAT FLOWEY THERE MUST BE--”

“HEY! Shut up and let me finish!” Undyne shouted over him. Papyrus shrunk in his chair and Undyne slapped herself mentally. She wasn’t good at being delicate. “Look, Papyrus. I know you’re strong. And you’re  _ very _ helpful. But there are other things you have to be in order to be a Royal Guard.”

“LIKE WHAT?” Papyrus asked. Surely he already had whatever other qualities Undyne was looking for! He just hadn’t proven them to her yet.

“You have to be a little mean.”

“HMM?” Papyrus didn’t understand.

Undyne sighed. “Royal Guards have to make tough decisions sometimes, Papyrus. Sometimes, we have to hurt people for the good of everyone else. I know that’s not what you believe, but it’s true.” Papyrus couldn’t find the words to respond. “You don’t have a mean bone in your body, Papyrus. I could never ask you to make those decisions. People like me - like the Royal Guards - that’s what we’re here for. We’re here to make those decisions so people like you don’t have to.”

Papyrus, to his credit, did seem to understand. “I… I JUST WANTED TO BE POPULAR AND HAVE LOTS OF FRIENDS LIKE YOU,” he said.

Undyne snorted. “Please. Popularity’s overrated. You and Frisk are worth way more to me than all those other chumps combined,” she grinned.

“R-REALLY?” Papyrus asked.

“Definitely,” Undyne chuckled.

“OH, YOU MEAN SO MUCH TO ME TOO, UNDYNE!” Papyrus reached over and hugged her tightly, forgetting that she was injured. “FROM NOW ON, I AM NO LONGER PAPYRUS: FUTURE HEAD OF THE ROYAL GUARD. I AM PAPYRUS: FUTURE CULINARY MASTER EXTRAORDINAIRE!”

“Now THAT’S a dream I can get behind!” Undyne laughed, hugging him back. A sly grin crept onto her face. “You know what this means…” she chuckled. Papyrus suddenly had the feeling that something terrible was about to happen. “IT’S WRESTLING TIME!” Undyne proceeded to tackle Papyrus off of the bed.

“UNDYNE, NO, YOU’RE SUPPOSED TO BE RESTINAAAHHH!”

Eh. She’d had enough rest. What she really needed was some exercise.

* * *

Toriel found Courtney sitting beside James’ bedside. The former queen had healed him, but humans required rest for serious injuries.

“Hello, my child,” Toriel called softly. Courtney didn’t look up from her gun. “It is… very good to see you. It has been many years for me,” she said.

“Don’ lie ta me,” Courtney scoffed; her voice sounded hollow. Toriel pulled up a seat next to her. “I know what’cha really think about me.”

“And what do I really think about you, my child?” Toriel asked, concerned.

“That I’m a monster,” she said, barely above a whisper. “An’ not in the way you are.”

Toriel chose to ignore the derogatory use of the name of her species. “I do not think anything of the sort,” Toriel said, using a bit of her queenly demeanor. Courtney responded best to a strong authority figure. “I want to help you, my child. But I cannot do that if I do not know what is troubling you.”

“What’s troublin’ me?” Courtney said, hands starting to shake. “All I wanted… all I wanted from this  _ damn _ mountain was to prove me a hero,” she said. She glared at the gun in her hands. “Instead? I’m the  _ villain _ ,” she said, voice cracking, “like one of them nasty bandits or outlaws. All to rescue some scummy boy who was already six feet underground where he belongs.” She threw the gun across the room with a clatter.

“My child, that was extremely unsafe!” Toriel scolded. Then she took a deep breath. “And you are not a villain. You are merely misguided.”

“What’s the difference?” Courtney buried her face in her knees.

“The world is not black and white, like in one of your ‘western’ movies,” Toriel said, recalling that the girl had an affinity for them. “The real world is grey. There are very few people who are truly ‘heroes’ or ‘villains.’ Almost everyone is in between. And while we must all face justice for our actions,” Toriel placed a hand on Courtney’s shoulder, “most of the time it is not our place to exact that justice ourselves.”

“I’m a  _ murderer _ , Toriel,” Courtney spat. “Not even jus’ one person. Hell, I don’ even know everyone I done in. There ain’t nothing worse a body can do.”

“Your decisions were poor, yes. But there were extenuating circumstances,” Toriel told her. “I am not condoning what you have done. You must face justice for your mistakes. But you are not irredeemable.”

“What’s my justice, then?” Courtney asked.

“Help the people you have wronged,” Toriel told her, standing up and taking the girl’s hand. “Help save those who remain. Then, perhaps, you can find absolvement.”

* * *

Sans wiped grease off of his bones with a towel. He was looking forward to a shower. First, though, he needed to have a conversation.

“hey, buddy,” Sans called Frisk over. They had been hovering around all day, waiting for opportunities to help. “c’mere, i wanna have a chat.” Sans wished he’d picked a less ominous choice of words as the human walked to him reluctantly. “let’s go somewhere a little more private, yeah?”

One shortcut later, and they were back in Sans’ basement. “everything’s all prepped. we’re leaving in the morning once everyone’s rested.” Frisk nodded. “anyway, that’s, uh… not what i wanted to talk about.”

Frisk sighed and hopped up onto the counter. Sans followed suit. “so, the story you told us down in the true lab - it sounded like it wasn’t totally complete. i wanna be able to trust you going into this, and for that, i gotta know everything. that okay?”

Frisk closed their eyes and nodded slowly. “There was another reason for… last timeline. One I didn’t tell you.” Sans nodded. He had a feeling that was what it was. Frisk took a deep breath. “You probably don’t remember this… but right before our battle, you asked me a question - you asked me if I thought that everyone could be a good person, if they just tried. Will you answer a question of mine if I answer yours?”

“sounds fair,” Sans said.

“Do you think even the best person can do bad things, when everything is against them?”

Sans knew immediately who the question was referring to. “...yeah. yeah, i do,” he said. “what you did was wrong, no bones about it. it doesn’t even matter why you did it. but we all have breaking points, buddy - and yours is a lot higher than most of us. we really did put you through hell sometimes; so some of that’s on us. not all of it. but some.”

Frisk nodded. “Then I think a person can choose to be good,” Frisk told him. “It’s harder than making the wrong decision. It’s a lot harder. But it can be done.” Then they took a deep breath and looked at the floor. “Last time wasn’t the first time Chara suggested a genocide run. It had been happening for a while. When I finally gave in, some of it was because I wanted all the dying to stop.”

They looked away from Sans. “Some of it was because I resented all of you.” For some reason, the statement didn’t surprise Sans that much. “I’ve done a lot of bad things. But even the first time I came through - I never killed because I  _ wanted _ to hurt them. I killed because I was afraid.

“Last time - I wanted you all to know just once what I felt like. To be hunted like I was some kind of  _ animal _ . To be scared out of my mind and not know why everyone hated me so much. That’s why I killed them all. And the best part was - there wouldn’t be any consequences. I could get away with it, and I’d still have my family. Or so I thought.

“I know what I did was different. None of you ever had that much malice, not even Undyne. It just… built up over the resets like some festering wound.”

Sans nodded. “wouldn’t be a wound to fester if we didn’t hurt ya in the first place,” he said.

“That’s not who I am. That’s not who I want to be,” Frisk said. Sans believed them, and wrapped an arm around their shoulders.

“there’s only so much one person can take, frisk,” Sans told them. He was finally beginning to understand them completely - even if they didn’t have a soul, one would be surprised just how much of their real self their mind was retaining for the time being. Sans had decided that Frisk was worth the effort. “especially a kid like you. none of us asked for this, none of us deserved it.”

“I’m not a kid,” Frisk said, deadpan. “I haven’t been for a long time.”

Sans knew that to be true. Who knew how long they’d spent in the resets, fully aware of everything that was going on? Not to mention how they had to grow up so quickly to cope with the situation.

“yeah. still not changing the nickname, though,” he winked. “what i’m getting at though - this time’s different. for once… let’s just leave the past in the past. fair?”

“Fair,” Frisk said.

“good. c’mon, let’s go catch some z’s, kid. i’m bone tired.”

“Your material is running bone dry,” Frisk countered. Sans grinned.

“whatever you say,” Sans said, hopping off the counter and tossing a little ball of paper at the human. They caught it in one hand and unfurled it - it had a lowercase z printed in comic sans on it.

Frisk glared at him through their eyelids. “You were waiting to make that joke the entire time, weren’t you?”

“guilty,” Sans smiled. He started walking up the stairs.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Hopefully I got people their feels fix for the day? Yes? No? *shrug*


	17. Disbelief

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Everyone goes to the past timeline to confront Chara. They find someone they weren't expecting.

“CHARA REMAINS IN THE TIMELINE FOUGHT UNDYNE THEY IN,” Gaster said as a miniature army formed outside the grey door. James had taken some convincing (and threatening from Undyne), but eventually he had agreed to help everyone stop Chara. Sans was tasked with keeping an eye on him to make sure he didn’t do anything stupid. “THE ALTERED EVENTS COURSE OF HAS SLOWED PROGRESS THEIR. IF LUCKY WE ARE, THAT TIMELINE MAY SALVAGEABLE BE STILL.” Gaster’s speech had begun deteriorating rapidly, as had his physical form. His clothes seemed to drip at the edges, and it was clear he was running out of time.

One void-trip later, and Gaster left everyone in the other timeline. Except, they weren’t in Waterfall when they exited - they were in the room just beyond the judgement hall.

“How ominous,” Asgore remarked, looking around. “I can’t hear a thing.”

He was right; there wasn’t a single sound to be heard.

“D-Do you think they’re… w-waiting in there for us?” Alphys asked. Feeling uncomfortable just standing there, she began to set up the portable dimensional transporter she, Sans, and Gaster had come up with to send Chara to the ruined timeline.

“there’s something waiting for us,” Sans said. “but i don’t know if it’s them.”

“Is it the other version of you?” Undyne asked, stepping forward. She looked completely healthy - whatever her feelings about the former queen, Toriel’s cooking was  _ incredible _ .

“i dunno. i didn’t do the whole judgement thing back then,” Sans said. “only one way to find out.” Sans walked towards the golden light spilling from the judgement hall. “i’ll go in and check what we’re up against real quick. be right back.”

Undyne turned to Alphys. “You’re getting right out of here as soon as the portal-thing’s warmed up, right? I wanna make sure you’re safe,” she said.

Alphys nodded. “T-Trust me, I-I’ll be out of the way. Y-You just… be careful, okay? D-Don’t let them…”

Undyne put a hand on her shoulder. “C’mon, look at all of us. There’s  _ no _ way they can beat us all.” The Royal Guard looked across her group of friends proudly. She  _ knew _ they were ready. “Pretty soon this’ll all be over.”

* * *

Sans’ nerves were on edge - there was definitely someone in the judgement hall. Judging by the silhouette he saw, however, it was neither Chara nor himself; the shadow was far too tall.

The show turned around abruptly when one of Sans’ slippers scuffed against the floor, echoing in the hall’s still air. It froze for a moment, before gasping quietly.

“S...SANS?” It was Papyrus’ voice. Sans felt his soul sink in his chest a little.

The other Papyrus sprinted towards him and tackled him to the ground with a tight hug. He started sobbing incoherently, and Sans’ only reflex was to hug him back. He could feel tears leaking from his own eye sockets.

Papyrus’ words all blurred together and Sans could only make out half of what he was saying. Something about this being the worst prank he’d ever done and that he promised he would laugh at all of Sans’ jokes from now on if he promised not to disappear again.

* * *

 

Papyrus was getting anxious; perhaps he was overreacting, but he didn’t think it should take this long to check whether someone was in the hall or not. He decided to take a peek himself, just to make sure everything was alright.

Papyrus walked into the hall to find his brother on the floor, being crushed by the hug of another version of the tall skeleton himself.

“SANS?” Papyrus asked, confused. His brother looked back at him; he was crying. He gestured back to the crying Papyrus helplessly; his alternate had a wrinkled blue jacket on his shoulders. “OH,” Papyrus said, unsure of what he could possibly do in this situation.

Past-Papyrus (this was supposed to be in the past, right?) looked up to see who was speaking and froze in shock upon seeing himself. He pulled himself away from Sans and knelt on the floor in front of him as Sans sat up.

“YOU… AREN’T SANS, ARE YOU?” He asked, pulling the jacket a little tighter around his shoulders. He sounded defeated.

Sans could practically feel his soul cracking in half. “no. i’m not your sans, anyway,” he said quietly. “i’m uh… from another place in time and space.”

“UGH, YOU AND YOUR DIMENSIONAL PRANKS,” Past-Papyrus chuckled. The sound was hollow. “WHY… WHY ARE YOU HERE?”

Papyrus stepped forward. “WE ARE HERE TO STOP THE HUMAN WHO… UM…” He didn’t want to say the words out loud, but Past-Papyrus seemed to understand. He pinched the fabric of the jacket between his fingers like a lifeline.

“i, um… we should go and tell everyone that the coast is clear for now,” Sans said, standing up slowly. He offered Past-Papyrus a hand.

“EVERYONE?” he asked.

“yeah. We brought some friends with us to help us out,” Sans told him, guiding him back to the group.

“There you are! We were starting to wor--” Undyne stopped when she saw the two Papyruses, one wrapped up in a blue jacket that was far too short for him. She remembered what she had told the Sans from this timeline, and her face twisted into a grimace. There were tear stains all over this new Papyrus’ skull.

“I’m gonna kill them,” Undyne growled. Seeing Papyrus,  _ any  _ Papyrus so… broken like this made her blood boil.

“N-NO! WE DON’T - NO ONE HAS TO - I-I’M SURE IT WAS ALL JUST A BIG UNDERSTANDING!” Past-Papyrus stuttered. “I… IT HAS TO BE, RIGHT? NO ONE WOULD HURT SANS… OR ALL THOSE OTHER PEOPLE… ON… PURPOSE… RIGHT?”

Undyne’s expression softened, and she sighed. “Of course you would say that.”

Past-Papyrus twiddled his thumbs nervously. “DO I… KNOW YOU? OR… A DIFFERENT YOU?”

“I, uh…” How was Undyne supposed to explain this? “Not yet.  _ This _ Papyrus,” she grabbed the skeleton and wrapped an arm around his shoulders, “is my best friend.”

Both Papyruses’ faces lit up, one from being called ‘best friend’ and one from the prospect that there was possibly a best friend out there waiting for him. Undyne winced mentally when she realized the version of herself that lived in this timeline was probably dead already. She was never one to sit idly, even when she wasn’t a Royal Guard.

Sans put a hand on Past-Papyrus’ back. “anyway, uh… other bro. we should get you somewhere safe while we take care of this. you’ve been through enough.” Past-Papyrus wanted to argue, but honestly he was terrified out of his skull and he wanted nothing to do with the human that was running amok in his home. Sans would fix everything, even if it wasn’t his Sans. His brother always made him feel safe.

“W-WE SHOULD… GIVE ME A DIFFERENT NAME, I THINK,” Past-Papyrus said. “SO WE DON’T GET CONFUSED.”

Papyrus gave him a smile. “I COULD TAKE THE NiCKNAME IF YOU LIKE. YOU HAVE… BEEN THROUGH A LOT. I DO NOT MIND SHARING--”

“NO,” the other Papyrus said quietly. “PAPYRUS… THE REAL PAPYRUS SHOULD - SHOULD HAVE A SANS. I DON’T WANT TO BE THE REAL PAPYRUS.” He glanced away.

Sans grabbed his hand. “hey, it’s okay. i know i’m not… not your sans… but i’ll be here, okay? i’m not letting anything else happen to you. and, uh…” he looked the other Papyrus up and down. “how about we call you jack?”

Both Papyruses looked at him quizzically. “WHY WOULD I…” Past-Papyrus looked down at the jacket he was wearing - Jack. Jacket. “OF  _ COURSE _ YOU WOULD SUGGEST A PUN,” he groaned.

“w-we don’t have to if you don’t want--”

“NO,” Jack held up his hand and glanced at the jacket fondly. “I… LIKE IT. JACK IT IS.”

A couple of the humans snickered at the name slightly. Frisk decided that they would have to educate the skeleton brothers on ‘The Nightmare Before Christmas’ later.

“I-It’s, um, n-nice to meet you, Jack,” Alphys walked up to him. “I-I’m Doctor A-Alphys. You can, u-um, come with me back to o-our timeline once the machine i-is ready, okay?” Jack nodded.

Undyne pulled Sans and Frisk aside to the entrance to the judgement hall. “Looks like we found the only thing we can actually salvage from this dimension,” she whispered, pointing to Jack with her thumb.

“chara’s lv is probably almost fully charged,” Sans said. “i think we miscalculated. we shouldn’t be here, they’re way too powerful right now.”

“We don’t have a choice,” Frisk said. “The transporter you guys built was specifically designed for  _ this  _ dimension. We’d have to start from scratch and put a whole other timeline on the chopping block. Their sacrifice should  _ mean _ something,” they said, pointing to Jack’s jacket.

“The punk’s right,” Undyne said. “One way or another, this ends today.”

“I couldn’t agree more.” A cheerful voice echoed through the hall. They could see Chara’s silhouette at the other end. “I can’t believe you came all this way just to see lil’ old me. I must say, I’m flattered.”


	18. Shattered

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Sometimes words can be as effective as daggers.

**** “You look pretty spry for a bowl of fish pudding, Undyne,” Chara giggled. “Are you the same one, or did they pick up a replacement?”

“I’m the same one, punk,” Undyne growled. “You can’t get rid of me that easily.”

Chara’s grin widened. “Past experience says otherwise. Still, I am just  _ thrilled  _ to see you all here. I must have forgotten it was my birthday.” Their grin widened even further as Toriel, Asgore, Papyrus, and the humans came into the hall, hearing the commotion. “Or maybe Gyftmas came early?”

Toriel stepped forward slowly. “My child? Is it truly you?” Tears pricked at the corners of her eyes.

“Yes, for the thousandth time, it’s me,” Chara scoffed. “Now, I just need one more kill to reach LV 20 again and destroy this timeline. So, who will it be? Should I just kill Papyrus now and get it over with, Sans? Since you won’t intervene until afterwards anyway.” Sans’ eye flared blue. “Ah. There’s the temper.”

“It’s time to stop this game, Chara,” Frisk said quietly. “Just stand down and give me back my soul. Please.”

“Aw, but I always loved hide-and-seek,” Chara said. “But fine. If you’re tired of that game, we can always play a different one.” Chara raised their knife above their head, and the air itself began to swirl. The room rippled like the surface of a pond.

“don’t let ‘em do whatever they’re doing,” Sans warned, firing a set of blasters at them. The rays bent around Chara as the room distorted, missing their mark. Undyne rushed forward with a battle cry, only to be flung out of the hall by a shockwave of dimensional energy. Alphys rushed away from the portal machine and to her side.

Then, with a deafening boom of static, everyone but Frisk disappeared. The human looked around frantically. “What did you do to them?”

“A temporary solution at best,” Chara said casually, walking towards Frisk. “But a band-aid should work for now. All I need is a little alone time with  _ you _ .” Before they knew what was happening, Frisk was pinned to the wall, Chara’s blade at their throat. “It’s really annoying using a soul that technically belongs to someone else,” Chara snickered. Frisk felt a pain in their chest as a faint light began to spiral out of their body and into the soul that Chara summoned from their own chest. “Of course, once I drain your life force, that should no longer be an issue.”

“How?” Frisk asked, unable to resist the strange power Chara was giving off.

Chara merely shrugged. “Being a destroyer of worlds has its perks.”

* * *

 

Suddenly, Toriel was back at the entrance to the Underground - the bed of flowers underneath which her second child was buried. Except there they were, standing in the faint sunlight, flickering like a glitch on a screen.

“Hello,  _ mother _ ,” Chara sneered. Their voice was distorted and seemed to echo around the room.

“Chara, my child… you must stop this. Please, come home and we can--”

“Home?” Chara chuckled. “Home is where your family is. And you certainly aren’t any family of mine.”

“M… My child…”

“I am not your  _ child _ . You’re a sorry excuse for a mother, and a queen.”

“I--”

“Oh, please. Do you really expect me to believe you  _ ever _ loved me? I’m clearly so very easy to replace.”

Tears started to fall down Toriel’s face. “I  _ never _ replaced you,” she said.

“Of course you did. First with one human child; and when he left, you got another. And another, and another. We’re all the same, a dime a dozen. What number are you on now? Seven?” Toriel couldn’t find the words to answer. “And you have the  _ gall _ to say that you loved  _ me _ , out of all of them. You despise me.”

“I could never--”

“I  _ died _ to free the monsters from this place. And what do you? When Asgore  _ finally _ grows a spine and does what he should have done years ago, you throw a temper tantrum and  _ run away _ . You abandoned your own people the second they needed you most, you filthy coward, all just to spite me. And when you come crawling out of the hole you hid in, you don’t take a single piece of the blame. No, you pin everything on your ex-husband because you  _ know _ he won’t fight you, because he’s still so in love with you. Admit it, Toriel - you just like hurting people. That’s all you’re really good for.”

* * *

 

“This is starting to get familiar, no?” Chara chuckled. Sans was alone in the judgement hall.

The skeleton looked around frantically. “what did you do?!”

“I killed them all, of course,” Chara said. “That’s how it works, you should know that by now. I kill everyone you love while you watch and do nothing, and then I kill  _ you _ in the judgement hall.”

“you’re lying,” Sans said, firing a barrage of lasers at Chara. They dodged casually and leaned against a pillar. Sans kept telling himself that it was all some kind of trick, but he felt his resolve failing. Where else could they all be?

“If you say so,” Chara sighed. “But we both know it doesn’t really matter either way. Whether it’s me, Frisk, or Flowey - you’ve never had control, Sans. There’s just nothing you can do against us. Even if you do defeat me, do you really think Frisk is just going to  _ let _ you have your happy little ending? Power corrupts, you know; they  _ will _ get bored eventually. And when they do, you’ll be back in your bed in Snowdin, and everything you’ve done will have been for absolutely nothing like it always is. So why don’t you do what you do best,” Chara started walking towards him slowly. Sans couldn’t find the will to move. “And just give up?”

* * *

 

“How did you…?” Undyne and Chara stood on the bridge in Waterfall. The Royal Guard turned to face them. “It doesn’t matter. It’s time to die, punk.”

Chara let out a yawn. “Yes, yes, let’s get this over with. I have more important things to deal with than you.” Furious, Undyne charged forward and lashed out with a barrage of spears. The human emerged unscathed. “Are you finished?”

“Not even close!” No matter what Undyne tried, her attacks wouldn’t land.

“I don’t know why you bother,” Chara sighed. Somehow they had gotten behind her. “You’ve already failed so many times. The truth, Undyne, is that you just aren’t strong enough to protect them. You never were.”

* * *

 

Alphys shrieked in surprise as Undyne vanished before her eyes. She was alone with Chara in the True Lab. “Do you really think she’ll love you?” Chara asked her.

Alphys stepped backwards. “She a-a-already s-said she d-did,” Alphys told her. Her heart was pounding out of her chest.

“For now. But we both know you’re just broken beyond repair, Alphys,” Chara said. “She’s only interested in you because she thinks you can be  _ fixed _ . You know that isn’t true, though - you’ve always been a coward and liar, and you always will be. And when you keep making those mistakes that you  _ know _ you’re going to make over and over, even Undyne will give up on you. And then, you’ll be alone - like you know you deserve.”

* * *

 

Asgore and Chara were in the throne room. “Father,” the child greeted him.

“Chara. Child - what are you doing?” Asgore kept his voice as even as possible. Whatever child he thought he raised - this wasn’t them. They had died a lifetime ago.

“What all humans do, of course - destroy. Death is all I have left, since clearly that’s all you ever believed I was capable of.”

“That is not true. Do not place your sins on me, child. I have enough of my own.” Asgore summoned his trident.

“That’s very true,” Chara smiled. “King Asgore, slayer of children and future god among monsters. Behold, the very earth trembles beneath him.”

“I am giving you one chance, creature, for the child I once loved. Stop this madness now.” Asgore cleared his mind and hardened his heart - a sensation that had become far too familiar to him.

“Asriel died for peace, you know,” Chara said, sitting down on the ground. Asgore’s hands began to shake. “He chose to die so that he didn’t hurt people that only hated him for a misunderstanding. And you honor his legacy with hatred and innocent blood.”

Asgore dropped his trident.

* * *

 

“You’re a fool, you know. Kindness is never enough in this world. It only leaves you miserable.”

“You just aren’t strong enough to weather this storm. Nothing can persevere death - not even love.”

“You’re a silly girl in a silly ballerina costume. Do you really think that  _ you _ of all people will be able to change anything? Your integrity means nothing to me, or to anyone else.”

“All the patience in the world won’t help you now. This is a world of action, and you’ve always been too weak to act.”

“Did you come here to give me  _ justice _ ? That’s just hilarious, coming from you. You’re just as much of a demon as I am.”

“Oooh, so very  _ brave _ . So brave, in fact, that you’ll just bash through everything in your way. Only, that’s not because you’re brave - it’s because you’re scared out of your mind.”

* * *

 

Papyrus and Chara stood on the road leading out of Snowdin. “You’re so naive, Papyrus,” Chara said.

“OH, YOU MUSTN’T SAY SUCH THINGS ABOUT YOURSELF. I AM SURE YOU ARE A GREAT PERSON ON THE INSIDE - ALL YOU HAVE TO DO IS PUT IN A LITTLE EFFORT. EVEN MY BROTHER CAN DO THAT EVERY ONCE IN A WHILE.”

Chara narrowed their eyes at him, unable to decide whether Papyrus was playing dumb or just  _ was _ dumb. “You’re wrong. People like me - we’re just evil. There’s nothing else to us. And until you learn to accept that and  _ fight back _ , you’ll always just be dust I have to clean off of my clothes.”

* * *

 

Frisk could hear the ugly words echoing around them as their legs gave out and they slid to the floor. They could see their friends around them, half-invisible like ghosts, trying and failing to deny the things Chara was saying to them.

“Destroying so many timelines has given me some interesting abilities. A special connection to the void, if you will,” Chara chuckled. “Dimensional illusions are pretty fun, right? They’re all too busy wallowing in their own faults to realize what I’m doing to you. By the time they do, it’ll all be over.”

“Tell me… tell me why,” Frisk said. With their soul so close, they could almost feel something. They could almost feel grief and fear and anger.

“Don’t you get it by now, Frisk?” Chara said, shaking their head. “This is what they deserve. This is what  _ we _ deserve.” They started giggling, almost manically.

“They’ve always… been good to us, in their own way. They  _ don’t deserve this, _ ” Frisk begged.

“ _ Everyone _ deserves this,” Chara said. “Don’t you see? You know what the humans do. They’re all cold and cruel and empty inside, just like us. Once upon a time, I thought the monsters were different - but I was wrong. They’re all the same.  _ I _ am the final judgement, Frisk - and I’m going to drag everyone to hell with me, where we all belong. We’re  _ all _ demons.” Black liquid began to drip from their right eye, and tears from their left. “It’s time for it all to end.”


	19. Belief

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Someone breaks through Chara's illusion.

Toriel fell to her knees, sobbing. Sans stood still, unable to find the will to move. Undyne threw spears and punches wildly, blinded with rage, as was James. Alphys cowered in a corner. Asgore hung his head low. Courtney stared at her gun, haunted. Andy and Olivia stood still, unsure of what to do. Charlotte and Landon backed away step by step. Frisk laid on the ground, the light slowly draining from their eyes.

Papyrus stepped forward.

“Finally growing a spine, are we?” Chara chuckled at him.

“BUT I ALREADY - UGH, DON’T YOU START! SANS WAS ALREADY BAD ENOUGH BEFORE THE QUEEN RETURNED, AND NOW I CAN’T GET A MOMENT’S PEACE!”

Chara smirked. “Hit me with your best shot.”

“I AM  _ NOT _ FIGHTING YOU,” Papyrus said.

“You  _ imbecile _ ,” Chara hissed. “Fight me now, or everyone you love dies. I  _ will _ kill them, and then you.”

Papyrus knelt down in front of them, and gave them a soft smile. Papyrus was better at reading people than he let on - and he could tell it wasn’t really hatred in the human’s eyes. It was pain. “I DON’T THINK YOU REALLY WANT TO HURT ANYONE. I THINK, DEEP DOWN, YOU JUST NEED A FRIEND.” He leaned forward and wrapped the human in a hug.

The illusion vanished as he did so, and Papyrus found himself back in the judgement hall. “FRISK!” Papyrus dashed forward and scooped the human into his arms, breaking Chara’s hold on them. They sucked air back into their lungs.

“How did you…? Give them back!” Chara’s voice became a booming growl.

“IT’S ALRIGHT, FRISK! THE GREAT PAPYRUS IS HERE NOW!” He created a wall of bones around himself to protect the human.

Frisk smiled up at him. “I knew you’d… come through for me…” they breathed. They turned to Chara and their stolen soul, reaching out with their hand. “That belongs to me.” The soul floated between the pair of humans, caught in a tug-of-war of wills. With one deep breath, Frisk cried for help.

The soul pulsed with energy, and the other humans found their own souls resonating with it - one by one, their own colors appearing to join Frisk’s in the judgement hall.

Orange. “Are you kidding? _Of_ _course_ I’m scared. I fell into a giant underground cave full of freaking monsters. That doesn’t mean I’m not going to fight back.”

Yellow. “Just because I made some mistakes don’t mean I can’t start fixin’ em now. Starting with you.”

Green. “Maybe kindness isn’t always enough. But I owe it to myself to always try that route.”

Blue. “Just because I’m patient doesn’t mean I don’t act. I  _ know _ what the right thing to do is here - you need to be stopped.”

Indigo. “I’m not going to let someone like you change who I am. I made my own way through this place, and I’ll finish that way, too.”

Violet. “Nothing is insurmountable. Even if I am not immortal, the impact I have on the world will last long after I am gone - and I have a lot left to do.”

The air suddenly grew still, as if the world was holding its breath. Then, there was a deafening boom as the link between Chara and Frisk was severed. Space rippled as the illusions disappeared and the monsters all returned to the judgement hall. Then, the building began to split apart and dissolve.

Frisk stood up, looking around them. “We need to get out of here!” They shouted to everyone, trying to get them out of their own heads.

Alphys wiped at her eyes and looked around. “The d-dimension is c-collapsing! F-Frisk is right, w-we need to go!” Undyne scooped her up and Papyrus grabbed Sans before everyone made for the portal. Chara stood there, brandishing their knife.

“You’re not going  _ anywhere _ ,” they growled, eyes and mouth dripping with black. They ran straight at Papyrus.

Sans finally snapped out of whatever spell he was under, and struck out with his hand, sending Chara flying into the portal with his blue magic. They caught the edge of the machine with their blade as they disappeared into the vortex, causing it to spark.

Gaster appeared out of the wall with a new door, waiting for everyone to enter. Alphys skittered up to the portal and tried to close it.

“They f-fried the circuits on the brane restabilitzers! I-I can’t close it from this side,” Alphys told them.

“We can’t risk them getting out again,” Undyne said. “There has to be something you can do!”

Alphys looked at the ground. “A duplicate p-portal will have formed in the ruined dimension. S-Someone would have to… go over there and close it from that side.”

There was about a second of silence before everyone started volunteering, shouting over each other. Jack, who had escaped the entire situation, stood in the corner and watched. He walked up to Papyrus and tapped him on the shoulder.

“WHAT IS IT, OTHER-ME? I AM IN THE MIDDLE OF--”

“CAN YOU PROMISE ME SOMETHING?” Jack asked quietly (for a Papyrus).

“UM… I SUPPOSE?”

Jack looked to Sans. “PROMISE ME… THAT YOU’LL CHERISH EVERY MOMENT YOU HAVE WITH HIM. EVERY SECOND OF EVERY DAY.”

Papyrus’ eyes softened a little. “OF COURSE I WILL.”

Jack gave him a smile and nodded before dashing through the portal quicker than anyone could stop him. Something else slipped through the portal as well, unnoticed, before the gate flickered out and died.

Sans immediately tried to get the portal working again, frantically tapping at the control panel. “al, help me out here, we can’t just let him--”

Undyne grabbed him by the hood and dragged him through Gaster’s door. “It’s already done, punk. I’m sorry - don’t make it for nothing. Let’s go everyone!”

* * *

 

Chara was unconscious on the judgement hall floor of the ruined dimension, unbeknownst to its only living resident.

“papyrus... do you want anything?” Sans saw his brother’s smiling face as he walked away from the battle he’d just lost - a fragment of time and space floating in the void. Jack rushed forward and caught him in his arms as he collapsed, pouring every ounce of healing magic he could muster into the dying skeleton. “it’s nice to see you again, bro.” Sans laid his head against the other skeleton’s chest, unaware that the pain in his ribcage wasn’t going away because he’d died and gone to heaven.

Jack dragged Sans out of the room before Chara could recover. He found nothing but a small ledge and and endless black void beyond - this was merely a shard of the dimension that had been lost to the first of the genocide runs. “IT IS NICE TO SEE YOU TOO, BROTHER.” Jack felt like crying when he saw the corner of a red scarf in Sans’ jacket pocket. He laid the shorter skeleton against the wall and pulled it out before wrapping it around Sans’ neck.

Sans looked up at him, still dazed - Jack’s smile was sad. “i tried, bro,” he said, voice starting to crack. Tears started dripping from Sans’ eyes. “i tried  _ so _ hard at the end.”

Jack sat down next to him. “I AM VERY PROUD OF YOU, SANS.”

Sans finally noticed the jacket around Jack’s shoulders. “wait... you…”

“I’M… NOT YOUR PAPYRUS,” Jack said. “ACTUALLY, I GO BY JACK NOW!”

“but if you’re not…”

“YOU, UM… AREN’T DEAD. SORRY?”

Sans’ eye-sockets widened. “then the kid is still--”

“SIT BACK DOWN,” Jack said, putting a hand on Sans’ shoulder. “THEY ARE NO LONGER A THREAT, I THINK. THE WORLD… WORLDS? ARE SAFE NOW. A BUNCH OF OTHER-US’S STOPPED THE HUMAN FROM HURTING ANYONE ELSE. AND YOU HELPED A LOT, I’M SURE! THE OTHER TIMES AND PLACES ARE VERY GRATEFUL.”

Sans gave him a strange look, but didn’t move otherwise.

Jack turned away shyly. “UM… THIS IS EMBARRASSING, BUT… I WAS WONDERING… COULD… COULD YOU BE MY SANS FROM NOW ON?”

“huh?”

“W-WELL… I WAS THINKING, SINCE I DON’T HAVE A SANS ANYMORE, AND… YOU DON’T HAVE A PAPYRUS…”

Sans looked down at the scarf. “i’d... i’d love that bro,” Sans said, giving him a big hug. “but you… i’m sorry for whatever happened to you.”

Jack hugged him back. “OOO, WE SHOULD GIVE YOU A COOL NICKNAME LIKE ME! HOW ABOUT…” he looked Sans up and down, “SCAR?”

“scar?” Sans looked at Jack and his jacket, then to himself and his scarf. Scar. Scarf. He started laughing hysterically. “i didn’t think you had it in you, bro,” he chuckled. “sounds perfect. scar it is.”

“WELL THEN, SCAR - JACK,” Gaster materialized out of the void. “WOULD YOU CONSIDER JOINING ME?”

Scar rubbed at his eye sockets. “g?”

“WHO ARE YOU?” Jack asked.

“he’s our… uh… our…?”

“OLDER BROTHER,” Gaster finished for him.

“WAIT. I HAVE TWO BROTHERS?” Jack asked.

“it’s a long story,” Scar said.

“YES, IT IS. BUT PERHAPS WE WILL HAVE TIME FOR IT LATER.” Gaster gestured to the void. “YOU HAVE BOTH PERFORMED ADMIRABLY. NOW, IT IS TIME TO GO.”

“WHERE WOULD WE BE GOING?” Jack asked.

“TO THE VOID,” Gaster said. “YOUR PHYSICAL BODIES STILL REMAIN, UNLIKE MINE. WITH SOME TRAINING, YOU COULD LEARN TO NAVIGATE THE VOID YOURSELVES - AND PERHAPS HELP AID ME IN KEEPING THE DIMENSIONS SAFE.”

Jack’s eyes lit up. “WAIT… DOES THIS MEAN I GET TO BE IN THE ROYAL GUARD?!”

“AH, THIS IS A FAR MORE IMPORTANT POSITION THAN THAT,” Gaster said, smiling. Scar smiled as well. “MORE LIKE - A GUARDIAN OF ALL SPACE AND TIME.”

“I… YES! I WOULD LOVE TO!” Jack looked at Scar. “”BUT, UM, ONLY IF MY BROTHER ALSO AGREES.”

Scar grabbed his hand. “i’ll go wherever you go, bro,” he smiled.

Gaster offered both his hands for them to hold onto. “THEN IT IS DECIDED. IT SEEMS OUR FAMILY IS FINALLY REUNITED.” The trio of skeletons drifted off into the void.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Ugh, I really haven't been happy with the last couple of chapters. That's what I get for biting off way more than I can chew with all these characters. You live and you learn, I suppose.
> 
> Anyway, sorry if the quality hasn't been stellar. Hopefully I'll be avoiding kerfuffles like this in the future. Time to get back on track...


	20. Denouement

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Everyone settles down after the battle with Chara. Chara gets a visitor.

It was almost annoying how persuasive Frisk could be without a soul. They had come and found Flowey back in the flower bed in the Ruins, just to have a chat. Flowey considered ripping them apart limb by limb a few times, but he knew it was useless. Now he knew what Sans felt like - to be on the other side of someone with the power to reset.

They told him about all the times he’d become Asriel again and destroyed the barrier. How they forgave him for everything. That they loved him, even though he’d never be able to love anyone else back. It didn’t affect Flowey much; no emotions and all.

But then, they mentioned Chara and what they were planning to do to stop them. They asked if Flowey wanted to help, and of course the former prince refused - he didn’t want any part in imprisoning the only person he still cared about in his own twisted, feelingless way.

Frisk told him that wasn’t what they meant. They said that Chara deserved some company. They said that Flowey might finally be able to get them to let go and find peace.

Flowey… liked that idea.

Frisk told them where they were going, and then they told him where the human souls were, and how he had broken the barrier before. They asked him to do the right thing, and… well. The rest was an even longer story.

It had taken Flowey ages to follow Gaster and the little ragtag group of heroes to the dimension Chara was in, but it paid off. He snuck into the ruined dimension just as the weird other-Papyrus smashed the portal to bits from the other side. He let the skeleton grab his dying brother and take him out of the judgement hall. For once, he didn’t feel like tormenting them.

There they were, lying on the ground, just like he had found them so many lifetimes ago. His sibling. His best friend. His Chara.

He lifted them up with his vines, brushing the hair out of their eyes. They were still alive, just barely; one side of their head was caked with blood where their skull had impacted with the floor. Their eyes slid open slowly.

“What do you want?” Chara groaned, barely able to make a sound.

“It’s... it’s me, Asriel. Your best friend.”

Flowey noticed the tears leaking from Chara’s eyes. “You betrayed me,” they growled. “I _hate_ you.”

“You’re just hurting,” Flowey said. “You were like this when I found you, too. But deep down, you don’t really believe in what you’re doing. You love them, all of them. You love me too.”

“You’re wrong,” Chara said. “This is all I am.”

“I thought that for a while too, you know,” Flowey said. “But… even if I can’t feel love anymore… I know that they deserve a happy ending. No one’s perfect, Chara. Monsters, humans; we’re all the same. And there’s definitely bad parts to us, but… there’s good parts too. I think you forgot that.”

Chara refused to look at him. “Don’t talk to me like you’re Asriel. You _aren’t_. You aren’t my brother.”

Flowey have a hollow laugh. “You’re right, I’m not. Not really.” He looked up at the ceiling. “But I think I’m finally ready to let go and be him again.”

With one last sigh, the life left Flowey’s body as he surrendered his will to live. Chara looked up to see a phantasmal outline of their brother, standing over them. He offered them his hand, just like he had so many years ago.

“C’mon, Chara - it’s time to go. It’s over now.” Asriel smiled at them as they took his hand, tears falling from their eyes. “We’ve been through so much. It’s time we finally got our peace.”

Chara rushed into his arms, sobbing onto his shoulder, as they both dissolved into particles of light. Nothing was left in the empty dimension but a fractured judgement hall with gold petals covering the floor.

* * *

 

“It’s really over, huh?” Undyne asked. They all sat around the dinner table in the king’s house. Frisk was sitting in Toriel’s lap, clinging to her like an oversized teddy bear. Their face was covered in tear stains, half of joy and half of regret.

“guess so,” Sans said.

“The barrier still remains,” Asgore said. “And we still have only six souls.”

“A-Actually,” Alphys began, “The b-barrier’s… gone. S-Someone destroyed it while w-we were fighting Chara, and… I don’t know w-who.”

“that’s not possible though,” Sans said. “we only have six souls - we need seven.”

“Flowey,” Frisk said. The emotion had returned to their voice. “He must have used the souls of the monsters. That’s how he broke the barrier the other times.”

“wait, wait - _flowey_ broke the barrier? why on earth would he do that? in any timeline?”

“That’s… a long story. But I may have had a chat with him before we left. I can’t say for sure that’s what happened, but it’s my best guess.”

“Then… we’re free, right?” Undyne asked. “We gotta tell everyone and--”

“No!” Frisk said, stopping her immediately. They sounded panicked. “Those humans - the Council of Seven, according to Gaster - they’re still up there waiting for us. I’m _not_ letting any of you die this time. We have to think this through.”

“Frisk is right. We cannot rush headlong into this confrontation. It is imperative that we review what strategies did _not_ work in previous timelines, and find a way that our human friends can help us pacify them,” Toriel said.

Sans nodded in agreement. “that means you can’t save anymore, right kiddo? only reset?”

Frisk shook their head. “The extra determination I got when we were trying to stop Flowey changed things. I can still save - which means that I won’t need a whole reset if things go really wrong.”

“that’s... good, i guess,” Sans said. He wasn’t actually sure how he felt about it, but he supposed he’d probably ask Frisk to turn back time if Papyrus died or something like that - and a load was better than a reset.

But it also meant that Frisk had a lot more power than before, and even though Sans had tried to shake them off, the words Chara had tormented him with in the judgement hall hadn’t left his skull. They were right - power did corrupt. The question was, how long would it be until Frisk got bored and started screwing with time for their own amusement?

“We should begin planning immediately,” Asgore said. “We will keep the barrier’s opening a secret until we are sure it is safe for monsterkind to leave.”

“Right,” Frisk smiled. “And this time, I’ll get you to the surface once and for all. I promise.”

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Ta da! Book two is finished.
> 
> The first chapter of the next part of the series, Once and For All, is up now. If you enjoyed this, consider giving that one a try. I hope you have a wonderful day, and until next time, au revoir mes amis.


End file.
